RCLCF: Patients deserve more

Patients in England and Wales have a right to expect high quality lung cancer care, the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation (RCLCF) has insisted.

Dr Jesme Fox, medical director for the foundation, described lung cancer as a "devastating disease" and called for NHS trusts to supply full data on treatment to provide a solid base to work on.

His comments are in response to a report from the Information Centre for Health and Social Care, which found that despite improvements in care there are variations in the quality of treatment throughout England and Wales.

"Rather disturbingly, this report shows that care in England and Wales still lags behind Europe and the US. Patients have a right to expect more," Dr Fox said.

"We do, however, welcome the data made available through this report. It gives us a picture of lung cancer care across the country and we urge all those involved in treating this disease to submit data, in order that next year's report will be more complete."