Plea to improve cancer care in rural areas amid 'lottery' fears

The Commission for Rural Communities says difficult and costly journeys to hospital impose extra financial and time burdens on patients from rural areas and adds to their "pain and discomfort".

In a study it found health services faced higher costs in delivering care closer to rural homes and there was evidence of problems in providing care packages for discharged patients.

The report found there were also problems running awareness campaigns and screening services in the countryside and people lacked support from local networks of help.

It recommends new ways of working to improve outcomes and also calls for better account to be taken of remote communities in drawing up plans for services and an investigation into later diagnosis of the illness in people from rural areas.

Ciarn Devane, chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, said: "More people are surviving cancer and the NHS needs to focus more attention on meeting their long-term needs.

"Blood clots, nerve damage, and depression are just some of the physical and emotional long-term problems that affect cancer survivors.

"However, people who have finished treatment for cancer are often overlooked by health and social care services. Those living in sparsely-populated rural areas can suffer the greatest isolation and more needs to be done to help them."

In North Yorkshire, difficulties reaching local people mean Macmillan information nurses have to travel from their Scarborough base with a fortnightly programme of visits to Whitby, Malton and Pickering.

Nurse Nicola Cox said: "People in some of the smaller towns and villages in North Yorkshire who are diagnosed with cancer often feel very isolated and a long way away from help and support. They already have to travel long distances for treatment so don't want any more long journeys.

"By taking our service to a venue near to where they live we hope that we can offer them regular support, reassurance, and a chance to meet other people in similar situations."

Commission chief executive Sarah McAdam said rural cancer patients spoke of the pain of regular and lengthy journeys to remote treatment centres and about the higher costs that they faced as a result.

"We are therefore supportive of any measures that enable cancer services to be delivered closer to people's homes."

Government cancer czar Prof Sir Mike Richards said there had been vast improvements in cancer care.

"However we know that survival rates still vary across the country. At present, some GPs do not have direct access to the full range of diagnostic tests and, even where there is access patients can wait up to six weeks for the tests to be carried out," he added.

"We believe that improving early diagnosis through speedier access to diagnostic tests and raising awareness of cancer symptoms will save up to 10,000 lives a year."

GENE MAY HELP HALT BOWEL TUMOURS

A new genetic study has taken scientists a step closer to an era of personalised cancer treatment.

British experts identified faults in DNA that can help doctors tailor therapies for thousands of patients with bowel cancer.

The research is the latest to flag up small groups of genetically similar cancer patients who can benefit from specific treatments.

Cancer Research UK scientists at the University of Dundee carried out a genetic analysis of 106 bowel cancer tumour samples searching for faults in a key gene.