Groundbreaking local cancer project shortlisted for major national award

Pioneering work to tackle health inequalities in cancer treatment in Luton has been shortlisted for one of the health sector’s most prestigious awards.

The Health Service Journal’s HSJ Awards programme has named the Luton Cancer Outcomes project as a finalist in the Innovation and Improvement in Reducing Healthcare Inequalities category.  The project has helped NHS staff diagnose dozens of cases of cancer in men and women in Luton, through early detection and screening.

The awards scheme contains a total of 26 categories, ranging from individual honours including the Clinical Leader of the Year to recognition for large groups of staff from different organisations, such as the Place-based Partnership and Integrated Care Award.

Shortlisted entries now go forward to the final stage, where they have to make a presentation and face questions from the judging panel at the beginning of October, before the winners are announced at the awards ceremony in London on Thursday 20 November.

Kathy Nelson, who was until recently head of the cancer programme for Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes and project lead for this work, said:

“The Luton Cancer Outcomes project has increased takeup of cervical screening in practices across the area, whereas previously it was the very lowest among similar ethnically diverse places.  Luton’s screening rate was below 60%, compared with over 70% for England as a whole.  In one practice, the takeup has increased by 34% in just a year by using female nurses who speak community languages to run the sessions.

“Similarly, we ran targeted case-finding sessions for men of Black heritage, in view of the evidence that this high-risk group has double the rate of prostate cancer, compared with the male population as a whole.  Over 700 men in the over-45 age group came forward and almost 40 of them have received a diagnosis of prostate cancer.  

“We’ve also worked with the Lung Health Check programme which is a regional project to take these checks closer to where people live, such as supermarket car parks, and we’ve also recruited Cancer Community Connectors, who are local residents from communities where cancer outcomes are poorer to help demystify the process and encourage them to access services earlier.”

Felicity Cox, chief executive officer of Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board, said:

“The HSJ Awards are renowned as one of the most prestigious awards schemes in the UK’s health sector, so I am delighted to see the Luton Cancer Outcomes project shortlisted.  It is a well deserved accolade for this research, which will make a real difference to the lives of people in Luton who are diagnosed with cancer, now and in the future.

“I’m incredibly proud of the work which has been undertaken in Luton to reduce barriers to cancer screening, but I’m pleased that it’s now allowing people who have unfortunately received a cancer diagnosis to access appropriate treatment more quickly.  We know that a late cancer diagnosis is strongly linked to poor outcomes, so this work is genuinely saving lives.”