Region’s hospital trusts to receive £4.5m cancer services funding

HOSPITAL TRUSTS in West Yorkshire will receive extra funding to improve cancer services, health chiefs have announced.

The West Yorkshire and Harrogate Cancer Alliance has allocated £4.5m, to tackle staff shortages and speed up diagnoses.

The funding will be spread across projects at five NHS trusts, to benefit patients in Leeds, Wakefield, Bradford, Harrogate and Kirklees.

Projects selected include a pilot scheme in Leeds for patients with vague cancer symptoms, faster access to tests at Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, and new high-resolution cameras at GP surgeries to detect skin cancers.

Professor Sean Duffy, clinical director and Cancer Alliance Lead for West Yorkshire and Har- rogate, which is part of the Sustainability and Transformation Partnership, said: “This is fantastic news for patients.

“Faster and better diagnosis can be lifesaving and the use of evidence-based medicine and clinical research to improve the diagnosis and treatment of patients is a priority. We will also be making the most of learning from other areas who have led on this important area of work.

“All of this will give us the opportunity to tackle the big cancer issues together across health and social care services which will ultimately improve life chances for people living in West Yorkshire and Harrogate.”

A project to improve skills of pathology practitioners, and endoscopists in Leeds and Harrogate will also receive funding.