The NOGCA team is pleased to announce our new Quality Improvement (QI) intervention which will be launching in January 2026.
The focus of the intervention is on reducing time from diagnosis of oesophageal or gastric (OG) cancer at endoscopy to start of disease-targeted treatment.
Why is this important?
Data from our most recent State of the Nation Report shows that for people diagnosed with oesophageal or gastric cancer in England, the median (average) number of days from first diagnosis of cancer at endoscopy to starting disease-targeted treatment is 64 days, and this ranges from 49 to 102 days across the country.
We have found that the people waiting longest are those undergoing curative treatment, surgery in particular.
Reducing variation across England in times to treatment has been identified as one of the priority recommendations for the NHS England Treatment Variation Working Group.
What is the aim of the quality improvement intervention?
In collaboration with stakeholders, the NOGCA team has developed an evidence-based quality improvement intervention that aims to support Cancer Alliance’s to reduce the time from diagnostic endoscopy to disease-targeted treatment for people with OG cancer.
How will NOGCA support services to achieve this?
- Provide enhanced feedback: in addition to publishing trust-level information, the audit will send bespoke feedback to Cancer Alliances about their trusts’ times to treatment, highlighting trusts with shorter waits and those where there may be delays.
- Support monitoring: the audit will publish Cancer Alliance and trust-level information about median times to treatment on a quarterly basis via our online dashboard, to support monitoring of progress.
Any questions
Please contact the NOGCA team at [email protected]