BMJ 1996;313:896 (12 October)

Editorials

Cancer registration: integrate or disintegrate?

A national body is needed to ensure quality and comparability

Cancer registration in England is under serious threat. For more than 20 years cancer registries were the responsibility of the regional health authorities, which have now been abolished. Although a new organisational structure and new funding mechanisms were supposed to have been in place in April 1996, much is still undecided. The likely path to be followed is devolution of funding and contractual responsibility to lead purchasers. Such devolution accords with the ideological framework of the changes taking place throughout the NHS, but it sits uneasily with the need for a national system of uniformly acceptable quality.

The many reasons why a national system is required are well known and need little elaboration. In the context of the Health of the Nation targets1 and the implementation of the report of the Expert Advisory Group on Cancer Services,2 however, we would . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

An advisory committee on cancer registration has now been established
Graham Winyard
BMJ 1996 313: 1149. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Dickinson, H O, Salotti, J A, Birch, P J, Reid, M M, Malcolm, A, Parker, L (2001). How complete and accurate are cancer registrations notified by the National Health Service Central Register for England and Wales?. J. Epidemiol. Community Health 55: 414-422 [Abstract] [Full text]  
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