How 4ways Supports the National Cancer Plan
The National Cancer Plan for England, published in February 2026, sets out an ambitious ten‑year programme for improving cancer outcomes.
It aims to increase five‑year survival to 75% by 2035, accelerate earlier diagnosis, reduce waits for treatment, and improve the experience of people living with and beyond cancer. It also prioritises tackling regional variation and strengthening specialist services for children and young people.
Achieving these goals requires diagnostic services that are resilient, adaptable, and tightly integrated with patient pathways. 4ways supports NHS providers in delivering faster, safer, and more equitable cancer care through high‑quality, secure, UK‑based teleradiology services.
How 4ways helps NHS Trusts deliver the
2026 National Cancer Plan for England
The plan reinforces the need to increase diagnostic activity and return to timely performance across cancer waiting‑time standards.
4ways helps NHS trusts expand capacity by providing:
- A highly responsive operational service, consistently exceeding typical turnaround expectations and enabling faster progression through suspected cancer pathways.
- Access to more than 400 UK‑based radiologists, ensuring capacity for urgent, complex, and specialist cases without reliance on overseas models.
- Extended daytime and early‑evening emergency coverage, supporting pressure points in acute and rapid‑diagnostic services.
These strengths allow providers to increase imaging throughput safely and efficiently, reducing delays in diagnosis and treatment.
Earlier diagnosis and more personalised pathways are central to improving survival, forming a core theme of the National Cancer Plan.
4ways enables NHS providers to strengthen early diagnostic pathways by:
- Integrating smoothly with RIS/PACS and trust clinical systems, ensuring images and reports are available quickly for specialist review, clinic preparation, and MDT discussion.
- Delivering a partnership‑led reporting service, supporting clear communication with clinical teams and providing dependable turnaround times that enhance pathway flow.
- Offering adaptable subspecialist capacity, enabling trusts to manage fluctuations in demand, reduce unwarranted variation in reporting quality, and move patients more quickly toward definitive diagnosis.
These capabilities directly support faster, more coordinated care for patients with suspected cancer.
With more than two decades dedicated to radiology reporting, 4ways delivers a dependable, secure, and collaborative service for NHS partners.
How we deliver this:
- Strong data governance and UK‑based reporting, ensuring full compliance with NHS information governance requirements.
- Reliable service performance, delivered by a large pool of experienced radiologists with robust emergency and subspecialist cover.
- Close client relationship, including on‑site meetings, engagement in governance discussions, and support for service development.
Flexible, tailored service models, designed to meet the operational and clinical priorities of each NHS organisation.
Workforce shortages remain a major challenge for radiology. The Royal College of Radiologists highlights significant gaps, which risk undermining efforts to expand screening, increase scanning volumes, and achieve earlier diagnosis.
4ways supports NHS workforce resilience by offering:
- Comprehensive clinical governance, ensuring consistent reporting quality, learning from discrepancies, and alignment with trust procedures.
- Flexible, trust‑specific reporting models, adapting workflows to local clinical pathways, staffing patterns, and operational requirements.
- An expert panel of subspecialist radiologists, including paediatrics, oncology, breast, neuro, MSK, and thoracic imaging, enhancing MDT decision‑making and supporting complex cancer pathways.
This partnership approach helps ensure high‑quality radiology services are maintained even during periods of workforce pressure.
Reducing regional variation and improving equity is a major priority of the cancer plan.
4ways contributes to this by providing:
- UK‑based reporting for all trusts, ensuring equitable access to high‑quality reporting regardless of location or local workforce constraints.
- Local engagement and face‑to‑face clinical and operational support, enabling tailored solutions for trusts facing capacity, pathway, or workflow challenges.
- Stable account management structures, offering continuity, strategic insight, and long‑term partnership working.
This helps narrow gaps in diagnostic service provision and ensures patients receive consistently high standards of care.
Driving the future of cancer diagnostics together
Every faster report, every earlier diagnosis, and every reduced delay translates into better outcomes for patients.
4ways is committed to helping NHS deliver on the National Cancer Plan’s promise; safer, quicker, and more equitable cancer care across England.
If you’re ready to strengthen your diagnostic pathways, we’re ready to support you.