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Lansley sets out NHS plans at All Party Brain Tumour Group Meeting

APPG event

Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust was proud to be part of a successful meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Brain Tumour meeting yesterday (30 January 2012), attended by the Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley MP.

Fifteen of our supporters and staff attended, along with representatives of other Brain Tumour Consortium charities, to quiz the Secretary of State over his plans for the NHS and to seek reassurances that the proposed new Health Bill will not set back brain tumour care.

The packed meeting was chaired by James Arbuthnot MP and started with short presentations from Professor Garth Cruickshank, Consultant Neurosurgeon and brain tumour patient Daryl Gittins.

Prof. Cruickshank appealed to the Secretary of State to ensure that the NICE’s Improving Outcomes Guidance remains an integral part of the care pathway and stressed the need for earlier diagnosis, citing evidence from Birmingham which shows that 85% of brain tumours initially present, not through Primary Care, but through casualty.

Daryl outlined his differing experiences in Swansea and London explaining that his initial NHS Oncologist in Swansea made crucial decisions without any input from him. Ultimately these proved to be inappropriate whereas the treatment he received in London turned out to be less complicated and more suitable.  He questioned why patients so often have to rely on the charity sector to navigate the post code lottery which exists in the NHS.

Mr Lansley responded by setting out his vision for the future of the NHS in relation to Brain Tumour care.  He outlined the three pillars of his proposed reforms starting with ‘no decision about me, without me’ to address Daryl’s concerns and he explained how shared decision making processes, such as new patient decision making aids, were already starting to help, for example on prostate cancer.

Pillar two focuses on decisions being made by health professionals, not politicians and Mr Lansley explained how he sees new quality guidelines and stronger Cancer Networks will achieve this in a post Primary Care Trust NHS.

Pillar three, he explained, focuses on how best to deliver improved outcomes. He stressed that it is unacceptable that the UK lags behind comparable European nations when it comes to Brain Tumour outcomes and stressed that ultimately he wants survival rates for Brain Tumour Patients to be better in the UK than in Europe.

You can read our live twitter feed from the event at http://twitter.com/SDBTT.

Download our full press release: APPG event full press release.

Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust is very grateful to everyone who attended the event, and we are looking forward to the next of our policy events on 29th February. If you might be interested in attending or finding out more about this, please contact: chawkins@sdbtt.co.uk.

APPG on brain tumours

We are very proud to be attending the APPG on brain tumours this afternoon with Secretary of State for Health Andrew Lansley.  This is our chance to find out more about why brain tumours don’t have a high priority in parliament and how we can go about raising vital awareness of them in this arena.

The discussion will be open to all participants but joining Mr Lansley at the meeting will be a Consultant Neurosurgeon Garth Cruikshank and brain tumour patient Daryl Gittings.

Follow us on Twitter (@SDBTT) for live updates on the questions posed and the answers given.

When Peter met Dan

Getting brain tumours into the minds of MPs can sometime be a tricky task. SDBTT were therefore very pleased to see the Dan Javis Interview on Jimmy Teens TV. Interviewed by Peter Wilkinson, who was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2007, Peter raises his concerns with Dan regarding the future of brain tumours.

If you would like to find out more about getting your voice heard in Parliament, email us at enquiries@sdbtt.co.uk

See the full interview here

All Party Brain Tumour Group

Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust welcomes the fact that Andrew Lansley MP, Secretary of State for Health, will lead a discussion about the future of brain tumour care when he attends a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Brain Tumour Group on Monday 30th January.

Sarah Lindsell, Chief Executive, said: “I am delighted that the Secretary of State has confirmed that he will be attending the All Party Brain Tumour Group. This is an opportunity for members of the Brain Tumour Consortium, our member charities and clinicians at the sharp-end to get involved in a discussion around the issues raised in our manifesto such as the importance of early diagnosis, the importance of sharing best practice and the need for more research into brain tumours. When it comes to the fight against brain and CNS tumours there is always more to be done because the issue has such an impact on so many lives but it is encouraging the Secretary of State is committed to listening to the people who know most about it.”

Read the full press release here

SDBTT staff and supporters will be attending.  We still have a few places available – if you’d like to attend please find out more here and email Clare Hawkins (chawkins@sdbtt.co.uk)

SDBTT Grant Round 2012 for brain tumour research goes live! Want to get involved?!

Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust is pleased to invite grant applications to its 2012 grant round for brain tumour research projects.

Applications, assessment and awards will be managed and run through our AMRC-approved grant round process.

Applications are invited for £40,000 – £215,000 for fundamental science, translational, population-study, health services and psycho-social / quality of life research across all types of primary brain tumour.

In this grant round, we are asking the research institutes to seek additional contributions to projects as matched funding, so that together we can increase the total levels of funding for brain tumour research in the UK.

The deadline for submission of outline applications is mid-night on Wednesday 7 March 2012. Click here for more information.

PS We’re currently recruiting new lay members  to our grant panel – if you think you might like to get involved in this way and would like to receive more information please email research@sdbtt.co.uk – we’d love to hear from you!