Question reference: S6W-09246
- Asked by: Finlay Carson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 23 June 2022
-
Current status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 8 July 2022
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure equitable access to liver cancer treatment that includes both curative and palliative care.
Answer
The Scottish HepatoPancreatoBiliary Network (SHPBN) is a key partner in improving cancer services and ensuring equitable access to treatment for liver cancer patients. Under the National Cancer Plan, the SHPBN has been awarded £653,000 over two financial years to redesign the pancreatic and liver cancer pathways. The key aims of this project are to shorten the time taken to stage and decide the best treatment for patients, streamline patient pathways and improve communication with patients, carers, primary care & health professionals.
Care for people towards the end of life has always been an important priority for the Scottish Government, and Scotland is already widely recognised for providing high-quality palliative and end of life care. There is always more we can do to improve our services and therefore we are committed to producing a new strategy for palliative and end of life care to achieve the very highest standards of care right up to the end of life, and ensure that everyone who needs it can access seamless, timely and high quality palliative care.