Appendix 4: Purpose of information transfer

Primary Care Trusts/Local Health Boards

For:

• Public health surveillance (including the investigation of potential clusters)
• Monitoring of outcomes
• Support for planning/commissioning of cancer services

Cancer networks

For:

• network-based clinical and service audits
• network-based quality and completeness checks
• updating information on patients who have died.

Quality Assurance Reference Centres of NHS cancer screening programmes or the national NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme

To assist in the evaluation of the quality and outcomes of the screening programmes at population level, to ensure completeness of cancer registration for specific cancers, and to link screening status to cancer registration.

Linking information from the screening programmes and the cancer registries is the only way to identify:

• interval cancers – cancers in the screening population which are detected between screens in the normal screening cycle
• cancers in lapsed attenders
• cancers in non-attenders
• cancers in the non-invited – invitations to screening are processed in "batches". It is possible that someone will be diagnosed with cancer, having just entered the screening age group or having recently moved into a new area, but prior to their invitation being processed. Additionally, cancers detected in people outside the screening age group can be identified. This information is required in the substantiation of screening age-profiles.

National Registries Bordering England and Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland)

As part of a long-standing agreement between the home nations, for the purposes of completeness of ascertainment, identifiable data will be released to the cancer registries in Scotland and Northern Ireland, for patients diagnosed and/or treated in England and Wales but resident in Scotland or Northern Ireland.