Questions to Health Ministers
Mr (Basildon and Billericay)
(Con)
16. What steps the Government are taking to ensure that the
recommendations of the cancer strategy will be implemented by 2020.
[906622]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social
Care (Steve Brine)
I, too, hope my hon. Friend the Member for Hitchin and Harpenden
(Bim Afolami) is okay.
Saying that gave me a crucial few seconds. [Interruption.]
Mr Speaker
It is very good of the hon. Member for Hitchin and Harpenden to
drop back in on us. Unfortunately, he beetled out of the Chamber
at a most inopportune moment, just before his question was
reached. If he sits there, and if he is a good boy, we might get
to him in due course. We have moved on now, which is most
unfortunate.
We are very clear that achieving the 62-day standard is not a
prerequisite for transformation funding, but the better the
performance against the standard, the more funding alliances will
receive. Most have now received 75% to 100% of the funding
requested. This is taxpayers’ money, so we must ensure alliances
are operationally strong and ready to achieve transformation.
Mr Baron
I welcome the new Secretary of State to his post.
There remains the inconvenient truth that, despite all
Governments bombarding the NHS with process targets in recent
decades, cancer survival rates are not catching up with
international averages. The last Government’s estimates suggested
that that needlessly costs 10,000 lives a year as a result. Will
the Minister work with the new Secretary of State, in drawing up
the next cancer strategy, to put outcome indicators at the very
heart of the process? For example, holding the local NHS
accountable for its one-year figures would encourage initiatives
to promote earlier diagnosis, cancer’s magic key.
I thank my hon. Friend for his work chairing the all-party group
on cancer over many years, as I know he is about to step down. He
has two answers in one here. Yes is the answer. Improving cancer
patient outcomes will be the seam that runs through the centre of
the NHS’s long-term plan, like the proverbial stick of rock.
(Easington) (Lab)
Only 5% of the NHS cancer budget, about £385 million a year, is
spent on radiotherapy, and that underinvestment is affecting
patient access to advanced modern radiotherapy and outcomes. Is
it not time to make the cancer drugs fund a cancer treatment fund
and extend those opportunities?
We are looking at the future of the cancer drugs fund as part of
the new 10-year plan. There is a radiotherapy review at the
moment, as the hon. Gentleman will be aware. Knowing him, he will
be engaging with the review in his area. He talks about the
latest radiotherapy and, of course, we have the new proton beam
therapy treatment coming online in London and Manchester, for
which children and patients are currently sent overseas. That is
a great step forward, but there is an awful lot more to do, which
is why the 10-year plan will have cancer at its heart.
