The National Head and Neck Cancer Audit has examined how far England’s 28 regional cancer networks are delivering the ‘Ideal Patient Pathway’ of seven key aspects of care to head and neck cancer surgical patients.

The report has found a wide variation in the percentages receiving this ideal care from 0 per cent to 23.5 per cent.

Across the country, 3.1 per cent of patients were recorded as receiving the ‘Ideal Patient Pathway’, with the largest group (24.7 per cent) recorded as receiving three aspects.

The Ideal Patient Pathway consists of seven elements of care, which when combined indicate that the patient received holistic and integrated care across the complex care needs of their head and neck cancer. These elements of care include having nutritional, speech and language, dental assessments and chest scans or x-rays before surgery, having the case discussed by a multi-disciplinary team which brings together:

• at least three surgeons; drawn from the ENT, Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery or plastic
surgery specialities

• 2 clinical oncologists 

• histopathologist/cytopathologist

• radiologist 

• clinical nurse specialist 

• head and neck cancer ward member of nursing staff

• speech and language therapist

• dietician 

• MDT co-ordinator/secretary;

Across England as a whole some of the seven aspects of care tend to be delivered much more consistently than others.

For instance, 96.4 per cent of surgical head and neck cancer patients have their case discussed by a multi-disciplinary team, but just 18.8 per cent have an assessment with a speech and language therapist before their surgery. 

The findings are published today in the National Head and Neck Cancer Audit eighth Annual Report 2012, which was commissioned and sponsored by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership, (HQIP) developed in partnership with British Association of Head and Neck Oncologists (BAHNO) and managed by the Health and Social Care Information

Centre (HSCIC). Data was submitted by all head and neck cancer teams in England and Wales relating to the care of 8100 patients between 1 November 2011 and 31 October 2012. The data also shows that there has been an improvement in proportion of head and neck cancer patients surviving. The number of patients surviving for a year from diagnosis has risen from 84.4 per cent in 2010 to 87.5 per cent in 2012. Care needs to be taken in attributing this to genuine improvements in the quality of delivered patient care, but it remains an encouraging trend to be explored in more detail in future reports.

Source: HSCIC