Labour pledges cancer test wait cut

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 18 Oktober 2014 | 16.50

18 October 2014 Last updated at 09:43
Labour leader Ed Miliband

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Ed Miliband: "Tobacco firms make soaring profits"

No-one in England will have to wait more than a week for cancer tests and results under a future Labour government, the party is to pledge.

Labour said the £750m cost of implementing the pledge by 2020 would be covered by a levy on tobacco firms.

Party leader Ed Miliband said early diagnosis of cancer was "critical" and could save up to 10,000 lives a year.

But a Department of Health spokesman said Labour "simply can't be trusted to deliver improvements in cancer care".

There is currently a recommended six-week limit for diagnostic tests in England, including tests to diagnose cancer.

Latest figures show the number of people waiting longer than this is increasing.

'Longer final diagnosis'

Suzy Lishman, vice president of the Royal College of Pathologists, said: "We'd all agree that diagnosing cancer at an early stage is a good thing to do but the important thing for the public to understand is that this doesn't mean that all cancer tests would be done and a final diagnosis made within seven days.

"It's likely to take more tests and it's likely to take longer."

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This is a plan paid for by money raised from the profits of the tobacco firms"

End Quote Labour leader Ed Miliband

Labour will say that within a week of being referred by their GP, a patient would have received both their tests and their results, meaning patients can start treatment sooner and suffer less anxiety while waiting for results,

Labour is also promising a one-week target for "all urgent diagnostics" - not just cancer - by 2025.

It would also launch "public awareness campaigns" to encourage people to visit their doctor and spot possible signs of cancer, introduce more training for GPs and consider new screening programmes for lung and ovarian cancer.

Cash pledge

Mr Miliband is expected to say: "It is critical that we improve early diagnosis of cancer - a killer disease that one in three of us will get - so that we can match the best countries in the world for surviving it.

"And this is a plan paid for by money raised from the profits of the tobacco firms whose products have done so much to cause cancer in the first place."

In his party conference speech last month, Mr Miliband pledged an extra £2.5bn to, as he put it, "save and transform the NHS".

But it was later claimed by its opponents that none of that funding would be available until halfway through the next parliament.

Labour says the cancer test guarantee is one of the priorities for the £2.5bn fund.

'Tough economic decisions'

A DoH spokesman said Labour "simply can't be trusted" to deliver improvements in cancer care and that the government was trying to improve "some of the worst cancer survival rates in Europe".

He said: "We're now referring record numbers of patients with a suspected cancer for treatment, delivering 10,000 more tests every day to diagnose more cancers earlier, and giving people access to the most advanced new drugs.

"Already in this parliament, we have invested an extra £750m to improve early diagnosis and cancer care, but can only do that because we are taking the tough economic decisions that allow us to fund the NHS properly - decisions that Labour have opposed at every stage."

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told the Conservative party conference the government had "transformed cancer diagnosis", saying "so far this parliament we have treated nearly three quarters of a million more people for cancer than [during] the last one".

Earlier this year the Welsh government announced a pilot system to monitor cancer treatment times and assess whether patients received timely care.

In Scotland, waiting times for cancer treatment have improved but nine of the country's health boards have failed to meet a key target for cancer treatment times.

Medical experts recently warned that cancer services in Northern Ireland were under pressure, with treatment waiting times increasing.


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