MP says bold step could save thousands of lives each year
Yesterday afternoon in the House of Commons, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Rt Hon Matt Hancock MP, gave a Statement regarding the NHS Long-Term Plan. Inside the plan the Secretary of State announced that a ‘one year from initial diagnosis’ metric will be included, which will incentivise the NHS to diagnose cancers earlier – the key improvement required to improve survival rates, as late diagnosis leads to poor survival rates.
In the Chamber, John asked,
“I very much welcome the Secretary of State’s announcement on putting the one-year cancer metric at the very heart of cancer services as a means of encouraging earlier diagnosis. The inconvenient truth is that despite the best will of those on both sides of this debate on the need to focus on process targets, we have failed to close the gap on international averages in our cancer survival rates.”
“Will the Secretary of State ensure that sufficient funds are allocated to the one-year metric, because history would suggest that this metric has been there, or thereabouts, in the mix before, but because the money has been attached to the process targets, local NHS systems have ignored it?”
The Secretary of State responded that better earlier diagnosis is critical to improve survival rates, and that local systems would now be feeding into the implementation framework pending the publication of the full implementation plan after the forthcoming spending review.
Afterwards, John said,
“I congratulate the Secretary of State and the NHS for taking the bold step of embracing the one-year survival metric. This is excellent news for cancer patients and their families, and will compel the NHS to diagnose cancers earlier, as detection in the disease’s early stages gives the best chance of successful treatment and thereby improve survival rates.”
“A real drive to improve earlier diagnosis will help us close the gap in survival rates between the NHS and comparable healthcare systems on the Continent. This could quite literally save thousands of lives – in 2009, the Department of Health estimated that 10,000 lives could be saved each year if we matched European average cancer survival rates.”
“As more details emerge as to how this one-year metric will operate, I will continue to push the Secretary of State and the NHS on behalf of patients and their families, including on the need to ensure robust funding flows are attached.”
Notes to Editors:
• John was Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Cancer from 2009-2018.
• He wrote an article last week on this issue, available online at: https://bit.ly/2KQf7fd.
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