Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for Sutton and Cheam, Emily Brothers has backed proposals to guarantee that NHS patients will wait no longer than one week for cancer tests and results by 2020. She has asked Sutton’s Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) about steps they are taking to further improve early diagnosis and intervention, drawing particular attention to concerns over bowel cancer.
According to Cancer Research UK, 1,611 cases of cancer are diagnosed each year in Sutton, with 732 cancer deaths per year.
Announcing the next priorities for Labour’s £2.5bn NHS Time to Care Fund, Ed Miliband declared his ambition for the health service to have the best cancer survival rates in Europe, which could save up to 10,000 lives a year.
Ms Brothers explained:
“The cancer package is part of Labour’s ten-year NHS Plan. It includes a commitment to raise the level of early cancer diagnosis – when treatment is more likely to be successful – with further public information campaigns, as well as ensuring GP’s have the training and support they need to spot symptoms and refer patients speedily.
“This is intended as a first step towards achieving one-week access to key tests for all urgent diagnostics by 2025 - saving lives and saving hundreds of millions a year in NHS costs for treating conditions diagnosed late.
“With the World-Class treatment available from The nearby Royal Marsden Hospital, one-year cancer survival in Sutton is 67.9%, similar to the English average (68.2%). However, I’m very conscious that the English average is lower than in the best performing countries in Europe, so there is much room for improvement. One-year survival can be improved by earlier diagnosis and better access to high quality treatment.”