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 help improve the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in Birmingham.

The National Health Service is implementing non-specific symptom (NSS) pathways for patients presenting with vague and non-site specific symptoms which do not clearly align to a tumour type, which may include pancreatic cancer. There are currently 96 NSS pathways in operation in England, which will support the NHS to meet the new Faster Diagnosis Standard for all patients referred for the investigation of suspected cancer to receive an outcome within 28 days.

Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board (ICB) is ensuring all urgent cancer referral pathways are aligned with national recommendations. It has implemented a new two week wait urgent cancer referral form for upper gastro-intestinal services, which directs patients to diagnostic tests where appropriate. The ICB has increased straight to test endoscopy and imaging capacity to ensure rapid diagnoses and introduced a diagnostic pathway for patients with non-specific symptoms.