About NCA

The North Cancer Alliance (NCA) is a collaboration between NHS Boards in the North of Scotland aiming to significantly improve outcomes for patients with cancer.

The NCA provides strategic focus and vision by taking a regional approach across the three cancer centres hosted by NHS Grampian, NHS Highland and NHS Tayside, which also provide cancer services to NHS Orkney, NHS Shetland and NHS Western Isles.  The NCA serves a population base of 1.4 million, which represents 26% of Scotland’s total population.

In Scotland, there have been, on average, 45,000 new cancer registrations each year (2014-2018).  The North of Scotland accounts for 26% of these new registrations, equating to approximately 11,500 each year (Cancer Incidence in Scotland, Public Health Scotland, September 2020).

The NCA team bring together healthcare professionals across the six NHS boards to meet these objectives.  The alliance provides a mechanism for collective accountability across the North of Scotland, and aims to make step changes in earlier diagnosis and radically reduce variation between the boards. 

Downloadable PDF: North Cancer Alliance Governance Structure (January 2023).pdf

Across the six boards in the North of Scotland, the NHS employs over 40,000 staff, which represents about 25% of the total NHS workforce in Scotland.  This excludes central services, such as Public Health Scotland (PHS), NHS 24, and Scottish Ambulance Services, which also operate in the North.

There are unique challenges to the delivery of health services in the North due to the large geographical distances and wide population spread.  This means that patients often travel for cancer care to our main hospitals in Aberdeen, Dundee and Inverness.

Furthermore, in the North, the population is older compared to the Scottish average.  There are also some areas of deprivation, particularly on the North coast of NHS Grampian and within NHS Tayside. 

The NCA board provides assurance and oversight of cancer services in the North of Scotland, with several sub-groups delivering actions associated with the improvement of patient outcomes.  More information on the various groups that comprise the NCA are available on the "NCA Groups" page.

For further information, please go to our Contact Us Page