Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what responsibilities the Government has for delivering services to teenagers and young adults with cancer.

David Mowat

Cancer services for teenagers and young adults are delivered by a network of Principle Treatment Centres and Designated Hospitals, commissioned centrally by NHS England. Services include:

– All cancer chemotherapy and radiotherapy;

– Specialist palliative care services;

– Survivorship;

– Long-term follow up; and

– Specialist therapies and rehabilitation.

Cancer services for teenagers and young adults reflect the unique needs of this age group. The delivery of care is arranged similarly to adult services, but there are important differences including the delivery of care in an age-appropriate environment and multi-disciplinary teams include social workers, youth workers, and activity coordinators.

Services also support teenagers and young adults with the late effects of cancer treatment which particularly affect this age group. Because cancer is a rare condition in this age range, teenage and young adult services work very closely with other agencies to deliver emotional, psychosocial and specialist therapies to support each teenager and young adult to maximise their physical, emotional, cognitive, social and functional potential.