The Transforming Cancer Services Team for London (TSCT), Tower Hamlets CCG and Tower Hamlets Clinical Effectiveness Group have produced a joint paper regarding the clinical coding of cancer patients within primary care.

The document provides a comparative analysis of national Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) practice register data with the National Cancer Registration & Analysis Service (NCRAS) prevalence data between 2003 and 2017.

This innovative analysis shows that there are more than 110,000 people in England who have a diagnosis of cancer but are not recorded on a primary care practice register. In London, there are more than 18,000 people.

Macmillan Cancer Support estimate that there will be 5 million people living with and beyond cancer by 2040 in the UK. In England, General Practice provides over 300 million patient consultations each year, compared to 23 million A&E visits. With the increasing role of primary care teams managing cancer as a long term condition, and that many consequences can appear years after the initial cancer was diagnosed, it is imperative that primary care teams have accurate practice registers.

The document also outlines how Tower Hamlets identified an issue with primary care coding for cancer patients and what they have done to ‘cleanse’ GP practice registers using the EMIS clinical system.