Specialised Cancer Surgery

Surgery means removing tissue from the body. It’s one of the main treatments for many types of cancer. The exact scope of NHS England’s commissioning responsibility for specialist cancer surgery is set out in the Manual for Prescribed Specialised Services.

Specialised cancer surgery clinical reference group

This service area is supported by a Clinical Reference Group (CRG). The main function of a CRG is to provide the primary source of clinical advice for specialised services and the membership comprises clinical, Patient and Public Voice (PPV) representatives and professional associations. Each CRG is also supported by an NHS England Commissioning Lead and Public Health Lead.

Membership of specialised cancer clinical reference group

  • William Allum, Chair
  • Craig Gerrand, Clinical Member
  • Nimesh Patel, Clinical Member
  • Vijay Sangar, Clinical Member
  • Richard Clayton, Clinical Member
  • Ian Hunt, Clinical Member
  • Michael Jenkinson, Clinical Member
  • Mike Molete, Patient and Public Voice representative
  • Janette Rawlinson, Patient and Public Voice representative
  • Hassan Malik, Affiliate Member (British Association of Surgical Oncology)
  • Nikki Morris, Affiliate Member (Royal College of Nursing)

Commissioning products

A key part of the CRG’s work is the delivery of the ‘products’ of commissioning. These are the tools used by the Regional Commissioning Teams to contract services.

Service specifications

Service specifications are important in clearly defining the standards of care expected from organisations funded by NHS England to provide specialised care. The specifications have been developed by specialised clinicians, commissioners, expert patients and public health representatives to describe both core and developmental service standards. Core standards are those that all funded providers should be able to demonstrate, with developmental standards being those which may require further changes in practice over time to provide excellence in the field.

The following service specifications fall within the scope of this CRG:

Clinical commissioning policies

A commissioning policy is a document that defines access to a service for a particular group of patients. A NICE Technology Appraisal Guideline on the same topic will replace, or be incorporated into, a commissioning policy as appropriate. These are important documents that are developed to ensure consistency in access to treatments nationwide.

The following policies fall within the scope of this CRG:

Policies relating to the use of stereotactic radiosurgery/radiotherapy can be found under Radiotherapy.

Clinical commissioning policy statements

Policy statements are brief documents that define the current commissioning position to support service contracting.

The following policy statements fall within the scope of this CRG: