John Baron MP secures Westminster Hall cancer debate

MP says earlier diagnosis good for both patients and NHS

On Tuesday (18th October), John Baron MP will lead a Westminster Hall debate on ‘Earlier Cancer Diagnosis and NHS Finances’. The debate will highlight the significant cost savings to the NHS of earlier diagnosis, as late-stage aggressive treatments are more costly, as well as being more stressful for patients. Mr Baron, the Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Cancer (APPGC), will call upon the Government and NHS England to look at this issue more closely.

John said,

“The APPGC, together with the wider cancer community, successfully campaigned to ensure Clinical Commissioning Groups are held accountable for their one-year survival rates as a means of promoting earlier diagnosis – the NHS still lags behind international averages by some measure. In Sweden, for example, around 82% of patients survive at least one year from diagnosis, whereas only around 70% of patients in England reach this mark.”

“As well as improving patients’ survival rates, there is also a financial benefit to earlier diagnosis. Treating colon cancer at stage I costs around £3,000 per patient per year, whereas treatment at stage IV costs around £12,000. Yet the NHS has been poor at quantifying these savings, and the debate is part of our ongoing campaign to change this.”