People in north east London are being diagnosed with cancer sooner and are receiving quicker access to treatment thanks to collaborative work between NHS teams.

The latest national data on cancer standards from NHS England and NHS Improvement shows that North East London is the top performing cancer alliance in the country in six out of 10 cancer waits standards, building on positive results from earlier this year.

The North East London Cancer Alliance brings together clinical and managerial leaders from different hospital trusts and other health and social care organisations, to transform the diagnosis, treatment and care for cancer patients in north east London.

Dr Angela Wong, Chief Medical Officer for the North East London Cancer Alliance, said: “This is a great achievement and reflects the hard work of our cancer teams in Barts Health NHS Trust, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, and Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, working in partnership with the North East London Cancer Alliance, our GPs, and local partners.

“Our ground-breaking projects such as the Mile End Early Diagnosis Centre, which provides an extra 16,500 procedures annually, are really having a positive impact.

“Our clinical diagnostic leads are also instrumental to our success. Their work on the delivery of best practice patient pathways has been a huge team effort.”

The additional diagnostic equipment at Barking Community Hospital (BCH) Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) is also helping treat patients faster and work is under way to expand this service. On a visit earlier this year, Sajid Javid, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, saw how colleagues in north east London, as one NHS team, are providing residents with additional diagnostic services.

The latest national data, from April 2022, shows cancer waiting times performance by region, cancer alliance and Integrated Care System (ICS). North east London came top in the following cancer standards:

• Two-week wait first seen standard: This aims to ensure patients are seen in hospital within two weeks of a referral from their GP for both urgent cancer and breast symptomatic (where there are symptoms, but breast cancer is not suspected)
   
• Faster diagnosis standard: This performance standard aims to ensure patients who are referred for suspected cancer have a timely diagnosis. The target is that 75% of patients will be diagnosed or have cancer ruled out within 28 days of being referred urgently by their GP for suspected cancer
   
• 31-day treatment standards for first treatment, subsequent surgery and subsequent radiotherapy: This standard aims to ensure that all patients, regardless of how they came to be diagnosed with cancer, should receive their treatment within a month of a decision to treat their cancer

Femi Odewale, Managing Director of the North East London Cancer Alliance, said: “These results show that we are making a big difference to the health and wellbeing of our local residents through helping to spot cancer sooner and providing quicker access to treatment. This is an example of what can be achieved by working in collaboration across many different partners and locations. 

“The hard work does not stop here as we continue to innovate, finding new ways to diagnose cancer more quickly and improve treatment for cancer patients.

“I’m incredibly proud of what our cancer teams have achieved, and I want to personally thank our staff for all their hard work.”