Improving Cancer Outcomes — House of Commons, 2015-02-05
Topic: Health
Andrew John Gwynne (Labour, Centre-left): I congratulate the hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay (Mr Baron) on securing this incredibly important debate and on the considered way in which he set out the issues in his opening speech I thank my hon. Friends the Members for Washington and Sunderland West (Mrs Hodgson) and for Easington (Grahame M. Morris), the hon. Member for Castle Point (Rebecca Harris), the right hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Paul Burstow) and the hon. Member for Salisbury (John Glen). I have not left out the hon. Member for Filton and Bradley Stoke (Jack Lopresti), but have left him to the end. I pay special tribute to him for the moving way in which he shared his personal experience. His message will have offered hope and inspiration to people who are listening to this debate. I thank him especially for that I extend my thanks to the Backbench Business Committee for ensuring that this debate could go ahead. It is crucial that when we mark important events such as world cancer day, the message goes out from this House of Commons that, whatever our political differences on whole areas of public policy, including the national health service, when it comes to matters such as our commitment to tackling cancer, we speak with one voice It is a particular privilege to take part in this debate on behalf of Her Majesty’s Opposition. From the outset, I want to echo the proposer of the motion in paying my own tribute to the various cancer all-party parliamentary groups, which do such good work to highlight these issues in Parliament. Cancer care and prevention is one of the most important policy areas for politicians to consider When I was a teenager, my mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I would like to say a personal thank you to my hon. Friend the Member for Washington and Sunderland West for the work that she does on ovarian cancer. Despite my mother paying numerous visits to her GP in the months before she was diagnosed, the cancer was not picked up until a later stage. As my hon. Friend described, although the symptoms were there, they were put down to other factors such as heavy lifting at work. By the time the cancer was diagnosed, it was too late for treatment to be effective and my mother passed away in hospital when I was 19. Not a day goes by that I do not miss her. Not only was I robbed of my mother; my three children missed out on a pretty fantastic grandmother. I therefore understand the very personal hurt that a loss from cancer can cause I do not blame the GP for not spotting my mother’s cancer. As my hon. Friend the Member for Washington and Sunderland West set out, patients with ovarian cancer often present with symptoms that are not easily recognisable. However, it did make me question what more could have been done. That was in 1994. In the 20 years since, we have made huge progress in improving cancer services. In the last decade, five-year survival rates improved for nearly all types of cancer. However, as we heard in the opening contribution of the hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay and in the speeches of other hon. Members, we still lag behind other countries There is worrying evidence from the past five years that the progress that we have made on cancer care has stalled to some extent. People are waiting longer for vital tests and the national cancer target has been missed in the past three quarters. Over the past four years, cancer spending has been reduced by £800 million in real terms. It is worth saying that in government, Labour created 28 cancer networks to drive change and improvement in cancer services. Those networks brought together the providers and commissioners of cancer care to plan and deliver high-quality cancer services in their areas. They helped to oversee and drive up the quality of services that were delivered to cancer patients. By significantly changing their structure and reducing their budgets by millions, as well as by scrapping the highly regarded national cancer action team, I would argue that the Government have disrupted those networks Cancer Research UK published an analysis late last year that suggests that cancer services have been weakened by the shake-up of the NHS. It also suggested they lack the money to cope with the fast growing number of people getting the disease. The charity found that real-terms spending on cancer reached a record high of £5.9 billion in 2009-10, but since then it has declined to £5.7 billion in 2012-13. So not only has the money been reduced, but the delivery mechanisms, which helped share expertise and best practice, have been dismantled Our hard-working clinicians and staff are trying their best within the system, and despite the challenges, continue to deliver quality care, and we should all recognise and pay tribute to the work that they do across the NHS. Let me come on to what we would do were we in government. We have made a commitment that within the first six months of the election, the next Labour Government will publish a cancer strategy with the goal of being the best in Europe on cancer survival. That would include increasing the rate of cancers diagnosed early, which—as we have heard in this debate—drastically increases the chances of survival. At the moment, just over half of cancers are diagnosed at an early stage, but over the next 10 years, we want to see that increase to at least two in every three cancers. If the benchmark of today’s best performing areas—60% of all cancers being detected early—were met across the country, it would mean 33,000 more cancers diagnosed early each year by 2020. We also plan to make leaps forward on screening and diagnostic tests. We have announced that we will put an extra £750 million of investment into testing over the next Parliament. That will enable us to guarantee a maximum one-week wait for tests and a one-week wait for results by 2020. That will be the first step towards achieving one-week access to key tests for all urgent diagnostics by 2025. That will be made possible by new investment, paid for through a levy on the tobacco industry, because it is only right that those who make soaring profits on the back of ill health should be forced to make a greater contribution in that area We will also ensure that the new bowel scope screening programme is rolled out by 2016, which I know will please the hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay. Research has found that patients who are able to see their GPs within 48 hours are less likely to have their initial cancer diagnosis via an emergency hospital admission.