Question reference: S5W-33761
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
- Date lodged: 3 December 2020
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Current status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 16 December 2020
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how its National Cancer Recovery plan has helped blood cancer patients, and what unmet needs it has identified.
Answer
Throughout drafting our National Cancer Recovery Plan, we have had extensive engagement with our third sector partners, such as the Scottish Cancer Coalition (SCC). The SCC’s membership includes charities such as Blood Cancer UK, Myeloma UK and Anthony Nolan, who are able to convey the issues facing blood cancer patients. Alongside this engagement, Myeloma UK and Anthony Nolan were kind enough to share recent patient survey results with us, for consideration and integration into the recovery plan.
These survey results helped us identify the need for more emotional and practical support, which we aim to address through the Transforming Cancer Care Programme (TCC). Through TCC, we are funding a £18 million joint partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support, which aims to provide cancer patients with a specialised nurse contact, who can provide emotional, practical and financial support.
Our actions around a single point of contact for cancer patients will also help with improved patient communication and navigation through diagnostic and treatment pathways- also identified as a key issue for blood cancer patients.
Additionally, Rapid collaboration is key to accessing medicines for blood cancer patients. We have asked that, as part of the recovery of cancer services, Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s (HIS) Medicines and Pharmacy Team, reframe the Off-Label Cancer Medicines (OLCM) programme in order to support the recovery and ongoing delivery of cancer services in Scotland. This is being taken forward through the National Cancer Medicines Advisory Programme (NCMAP), hosted within HIS Medicines and Pharmacy team and supported by a national group of key experts and stakeholders. This work will build on the existing benefits of the OLCM programme, such as improving patient outcomes, reducing unwarranted variation and improve equity of access, improving service efficiency and effectiveness, and improvement in the quality of assessment of treatments.
Alongside this, the NCMAP will reduce duplication of review and assessment beyond OLCM within regional prescribing groups and streamline implementation procedures.