Dear Constituent
Thank you for contacting me regarding Cancer Research UK’s Cross Cancer Out campaign.
Unfortunately, many of us know someone who has suffered from cancer. It is a horrible disease that takes too many. We must do more to help those at risk of developing the disease.
Early diagnosis of cancer means treatment is more likely to be successful, yet more and more people are now being forced to wait longer for essential tests. Ed Miliband has pledged that a Labour government will guarantee that NHS patients in England will wait no longer than one week for cancer tests and results by 2020.
Labour’s ambition is for the health service to have the best cancer survival rates in Europe, which could save up to 10,000 lives a year.
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 GPs 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 of pounds a year in NHS costs for treating conditions diagnosed late.
Labour’s plans for early cancer diagnosis include:
· A one week cancer test guarantee
· Better public awareness and encouragement to go to the GP
· Better access to ensure the public can get to see their GP
· Better support and training for GPs to spot cancer and commission tests
· Improved screening programmes
As well as helping to improve early diagnosis, rapid access to cancer tests will ensure people diagnosed with the disease can start treatment earlier and will also help reduce the anxiety involved in waiting for a cancer test.
Labour’s cancer test guarantee will be made possible by £750 million new investment over five years, matched by revenue raised through a new levy on tobacco firms which make huge profits on the back of ill-health.
Sincerely
Rachel Burgin
Labour PPC, Hitchin & Harpenden