Labour: 420,000 more patients waiting too long for cancer appointments after 13 years of Tory failure on cancer
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Compared to when Labour left office in 2010, almost 35,000 more
people a month now have to wait longer than 2 weeks to see a
hospital doctor after their GP says they might have
cancer. That’s almost 420,000 more people this year
who’ll be waiting longer than they should wait for a hospital
follow up, compared to when the Tories first entered
office. Whilst the number of referrals for suspected
cancer has also gone up, analysis by the House of...Request free trial
Compared to when Labour left office in 2010, almost 35,000 more people a month now have to wait longer than 2 weeks to see a hospital doctor after their GP says they might have cancer. That’s almost 420,000 more people this year who’ll be waiting longer than they should wait for a hospital follow up, compared to when the Tories first entered office. Whilst the number of referrals for suspected cancer has also gone up, analysis by the House of Commons Library for Labour has found that the proportion of patients who are seen within two weeks has fallen for every type of cancer, compared with 2010. Moreover, compared to 2010, around 62,000 more cancer patients will have to wait over 2 months to start treatment this year. The Conservatives will try and point the finger at Covid, but Tory mismanagement of the NHS meant patients were waiting too long for treatment well before the pandemic hit. When Labour left office in May 2010, 3,135 patients had been waiting to see a hospital cancer specialist for over 2 weeks. By January 2020, 19,035 had been waiting that long - a sixfold increase. And the same is true for treatment starts. In May 2010, 996 people had been waiting to start their cancer treatment for over 2 months, compared to 3,316 before the pandemic in February 2020. Labour knows how important early intervention is. As Keir Starmer highlighted in his recent Health Mission speech, the survival rate for cancer when it’s diagnosed at stage one or two is 81%, but at stage three or four – it is just 26%. The British public know this too. The state of the NHS is forcing more and more people to use private healthcare, up from one in ten in 2019 to one in 7 now. Last year 272,000 used their own money to pay for treatments - up from 199,000 in 2019. The Tories are failing to address these rising waiting lists, with a national cancer plan scrapped before it was even published, chronic understaffing of the NHS, and the number of people being seen in hospital still lower than it was before the pandemic. Labour has a plan to fix cancer care. This includes training 7,500 more doctors and 10,000 more nurses a year, paid for by abolishing the non-dom tax status; using spare capacity in the private sector to bring down the NHS backlog; and reforming the NHS to shift its focus to early diagnosis and intervention, as well as preventing ill-health in the first place. By doing this, Labour will make sure 75% of all cancer is diagnosed at stage one or two. That’s the difference a Labour government would make. Karin Smyth MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Minister, said: “After 13 years of Tory government cancer care is in crisis. “The Tories have left too many cancer patients waiting too long for a diagnosis, specialist appointments, and to begin their treatment. When it comes to cancer, delays cost lives. “A Labour government will improve cancer survival rates by hitting all NHS cancer waiting time and early diagnosis targets within five years.” Ends Notes All waiting times data, source: House of Commons Library analysis for Labour on the proportion of patients seen within 2 weeks of referral for suspected cancer
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