Improving Cancer Outcomes — House of Commons, 2015-02-05
Topic: Health
Paul Kenneth Burstow (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): Personally, I think that at some point there must be a legal challenge as to whether that places ageist assumptions at the heart of the NHS. The fastest growing part of our population are the over-85s. How on earth can it be that we do not have statistics that allow us to know how well that older part of our population is being treated for cancer, let alone anything else? When one considers that when the NHS celebrates its 100th birthday, there will be over 100,000 centenarians in this country, it is clear that we need to start catching up in the way in which we use data to ensure that we are not discriminating inappropriately on the basis of the person’s date of birth. I agree that the indicator needs to be looked at The hon. Member for Easington also mentioned the cancer drugs fund. After the election there should be a thorough evaluation of the impact of the cancer drugs fund over the past five years. It was a good initiative; it plugged a gap, but unfortunately the gap that it was plugging is now not being filled because there has not been a change in the way we pay for drugs. It could play a part in underpinning combinatorial innovation of the sort that the "Five Year Forward View" mentions On the hon. Gentleman’s reference to free end-of-life social care, I have not changed my view. When I wrote the care and support White Paper, we made it clear that we saw much merit in free end-of-life social care. Because of the reports that have been published since, I believe that the evidence has grown even more compelling that this is not a cost to the NHS. It would be a benefit to the NHS. I know that my right hon. Friend the Minister of State who has responsibility for care and support has taken that view as well, and I hope we can see progress on that too As the Member of Parliament for Sutton and Cheam, it is a source of great pride to me that I live in a constituency which has a hidden gem—the Institute of Cancer Research. As I am sure hon. Members in all parts of the House know, that is a world-beating research facility, taking research and discovery from the lab to the bedside in collaboration with the Royal Marsden hospital, which is on the same site—a phenomenal site which is looking to expand further. It does fantastic work, including genetic testing, which is an area that I want to raise with the Minister The institute has been a pioneer in mainstreaming genetic testing, particularly around BRCA1 and 2. It has developed a good practice model that can mainstream genetic testing into existing oncology appointments. The potential of that is amazing—four times the volume of activity can be delivered through this new pathway at twice the speed and half the cost. In other words, we can gain the benefits of genetic testing without apparently having to spend more money, but delivering much more targeted and insightful diagnosis and onward treatment as a result. That pathway exists. It has been developed, refined and tested, but it has not yet been widely adopted, despite the fact that it is freely available. I wonder what more could be done to make sure that it is more freely adopted. Perhaps the Minister could say how the strategy might help take that forward This debate needs to be set in a broader context. If we are to achieve an ambition of matching the best in Europe over the life of the next Parliament, we must address the funding pressures that are acknowledged in the "Five Year Forward View". This Government have started to acknowledge that with what Simon Stevens described as the "down payment" of the £2 billion announced in the autumn statement, which will come in from this April, but we know that we need to give the NHS certainty about funding for the life of the next Parliament All of us who are responsible for articulating different party points of view on health policy need to be clear with the NHS and with the public about what we would do with regard to funding. I am therefore pleased that the Deputy Prime Minister and the care and support Minister have set out how the Liberal Democrats would provide the £8 billion requested in the "Five Year Forward View". I look forward to the debates we will have over the coming weeks on how others would achieve the same thing, which we need. This debate, however, is an important way of shining a light on the progress that has been made and the opportunities to make further progress I thank the hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay for securing the debate and the Backbench Business Committee for allowing it. This is what it makes clear: yes, there has been progress, but there is still much more to come.