ABSTRACT
The ‘efficiency myth’ is an absolutely key issue. Niall Dickson, Director of the King’s Fund – in reviewing healthcare change – has pointed out that despite National Health Service (NHS) reforms the system is still ‘relatively inefficient, reactive without being responsive, and still too dominated by provider interests.’ Cancer care is an example of what the NHS has signally failed to do to achieve reliably competent patient care. Cancer care is both a particularly urgent area for action, in terms of diagnosis, treatment and outcomes. It is, too, a key arena where so much more can be done, notably by proper coordination of care. Yet today – and despite the new NHS Cancer Framework and the Herculean efforts of cancer director Professor Mike Richards – Britain has some of the lowest survival rates of countries with similar health spending.
