David Wells
Chief Executive, Institute of Biomedical Science
Learn what needs to be done to tackle NHS cancer testing challenges, including addressing workforce capacity and rising demand for pathology services.
There are growing concerns that the current model for cancer testing (and the workforce) is unable to keep up with the increasing demand for pathology services across the NHS. The Institute of Biomedical Science and AstraZeneca teamed up to develop a six-step framework for creating the capacity the NHS needs for the future of cancer testing:
1. Grow the workforce
As well as investing in and training a pipeline of talent, the NHS should support pathologists in playing a key role in multidisciplinary teams. Enable biomedical and clinical scientists to operate at the top of their licence — developing and using specialist and expert skills and knowledge.
2. Bring cancer testing together
We should ensure testing is organised according to the needs of patients and multidisciplinary teams, delivering commonly used or established tests closer to patients and at the quality and scale required.
3. Enable providers to deliver
Services should be patient and clinician-focused. When centralised testing services are unable to provide a timely, high-quality service, other providers should be supported to lend additional capacity — providing the right test at the right time. Where this happens, it will be important that tests are delivered according to the necessary criteria, as well as in line with appropriate quality measures and at a comparable cost.
Unsuitable use of buildings, overstretched
courier services and inefficient information
transfer hinder cancer testing services.
4. Improve data
Ensuring data is collected consistently and can be shared across systems is vital to improving quality and unlocking capacity. The publication of a genomics informatics implementation plan, as committed to in NHS England’s genomic medicine strategy, is a vital first step. Data on cancer testing is also vital for enabling accountability, supporting timely and joined-up patient care and informing research.
5. Develop a cancer testing accountability framework
Quality measures should be established — to which all NHS cancer testing providers adhere, with comparable data published on performance. The framework should inform future commissioning decisions and be used to identify good practices across the system.
6. Invest in the fundamentals
Testing advances can be inaccessible due to outdated or inadequate physical infrastructure. Unsuitable use of buildings, overstretched courier services and inefficient information transfer hinder cancer testing services. Investing properly in the fundamentals of infrastructure and logistics would enable services to deliver high-quality tests with rapid turnaround times and support the expansion of services.
