Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support patients who are waiting for cancer (a) screening, (b) follow-up tests and (c) treatment that has been postponed due to the covid-19 outbreak.

The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement have taken a range of actions to support patients during the COVID-19 outbreak. NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with providers to ensure that any screening appointments that have been delayed due to the pandemic are rescheduled as soon as is safely possible. Services are focused on restoring appointments for the highest-priority patient populations first, including those already some way along the screening pathway.

In addition, COVID-19 protected cancer hubs were set up in 21 Cancer Alliances across England to provide cancer surgery and to keep patients safe during the outbreak. Diagnostic and surgical capacity for cancer has been ring-fenced so that referrals, diagnostics and treatment can be brought back to pre-pandemic levels at the earliest opportunity. Particular emphasis has been given to ensuring that patients are confident and feel safe in accessing these services.

The National Cancer Director wrote to Cancer Alliances on 8 June to outline these measures at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/wp-content/uploads/sites/52/2020/06/C0511-second-phase-of-nhs-response-to-covid-19-for-cancer-services-letter.pdf