There are approximately 26,000 new cases diagnosed and 12,000 deaths each year in the East Midlands. The Alliance seeks to improve the survival rates for those people by ensuring we can detect cancer at the earliest opportunity.  Key to this is increasing cancer awareness and uptake of cancer screening.  Some of the ways we do this is to undertake local awareness campaigns, targeting of groups in our communities and offering tailored support and information through innovative communications channels such as video-texting in multiple languages.  We know that early detection saves lives.

Detecting cancer at an early stage means that more people need to have diagnostic tests such as CT scans, MRI scans, biopsies, and endoscopies.   As an Alliance, we are working together to develop a clear vision for future services that make the best use of our resources, our staff, the available technology, and new care delivery models such as community diagnostic hubs that will add additional capacity, lead to reduced waiting times, and ultimately improve the patient diagnostic experience.

Our ambition is to work with commissioners and providers to improve the delivery of cancer services across the East Midlands to ensure patients get the highest standard of care equally across the region.

We work as an improvement collaborative comprising the 5 East Midlands Integrated Care Systems.  Together with our GP practice teams, hospital teams, cancer clinicians, commissioning teams, public health teams, community teams, we are working to improve the experience of care and cancer outcomes for our local communities.  That’s from the earliest detection of cancer through, delivering the modern evidence-based treatments leading to the best possible clinical outcomes and people living well with and beyond their cancer diagnosis.

EMCA also works closely with a range of voluntary organisations such as Macmillan and Cancer Research UK and local community groups including Healthwatch.

 

The Alliance listens to a range of feedback from people, carers and families who access cancer services across the East Midlands. This is through a number of mechanisms – involvement in cancer groups by people with lived experience of cancer and through a range of community groups, national and local surveys and gathering feedback from social media sources.  The Alliance uses this feedback to shape our improvement plans. Read more about how you can get involved.