John Baron MP questions Health Secretary on NHS White Paper

MP applauds Government’s decision to include one year cancer survival indicator

Recently in the House of Commons, John Baron MP questioned the Health Secretary on the new NHS White Paper, which plans to close Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs) and Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and move their commissioning powers over to GP consortia.

John asked:

“I very much welcome the White Paper’s increased focus on improving outcomes, and particularly the introduction of one-year and five-year cancer survival rates, for which the All-Party Group on cancer has been pushing. How does he envisage GP commissioning of cancer services improving with the White Paper, given that part of the problem is that a typical GP will see only eight new cancer presentations a year?”

The Health Secretary, the Rt. Hon Andrew Lansley CBE MP, responded by paying tribute to John’s work on cancer care and suggested GP commissioning consortia will liaise with cancer networks to establish the services which they need for their patients.

John said afterwards:

“One year cancer survival rates measure how many patients survive from diagnosis to the one year point, and our rates are poor. They show that cancer detection happens later in this country compared to our neighbours, which is why fewer of our patients reach the one year mark.

“This is why the introduction of a one year indicator is a significant step forward for cancer care in England. This indicator will force the NHS to focus more on earlier diagnosis to the benefit of cancer patients.”

Ends

Word Count: 239
Date: 26th July 2010

Notes to Editors

1. John is Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Cancer (APPGC)
2. The APPGC recently produced a report into cancer inequalities which can be found at:
http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Documents/GetInvolved/Campaigns/APPG/BritainAgainstCancer2009/CancerInequalitiesReport.pdf