Report: No10 is making 'inadequate' progress to improve survival rates

Government is making INADEQUATE progress to improve cancer survival rates, damning report warns

• Report claims No10 is failing to meet targets to diagnose more cancer cases 
• Target to diagnose 75% of Stage 1 and 2 cancers by 2028 is unlikely to be met 
• Experts say staffing issues were underpinning a lack of progress towards goals 

Britain is making ‘inadequate’ progress towards its fight to improve cancer services, a damning report by MPs concluded today. 

Experts advising the Health and Social Care Committee examined pledges that the Government had made to improve cancer outcomes for patients.

They ruled the Government is failing to meet its targets to boost the NHS workforce, speed up diagnoses and give all patients access to personalised care.

Staffing issues were underpinning a lack of progress towards the vital goals, which include diagnosing patients who have been referred within 28 days.  

Professor Dame Jane Dacre, chair of the expert panel and ex-president of the Royal College of Physicians, said cancer services are ‘facing overwhelming pressure’.

The findings come just over a month after Sajid Javid declared a ‘national war on cancer’ in a bid to improve Britain’s survival rate for the disease.

His proposals include a series of ‘walk-in’ MRI cancer screening services in places like shopping centres and football grounds to speed up diagnoses.

But at the time of his pledge, the Health Secretary refused to promise any new cash to tackle workforce shortages.  

 The performance of the NHS’s current cancer referral targets have declined in the past decade with the number of cancer patients who received urgent treatment within two months falling to 67 per cent last year, the target is 85 per cent 

Uptake of breast cancer screening ‘has reached a historic low’, a Conservative former public health minister has warned.

Steve Brine urged the Government to ‘up our game post-Covid’ on breast cancer screening as he cautioned: ‘My fear is that this will be another of the terrible legacies of the pandemic.’

Addressing the invite backlog and the ‘drastic drop in attendance’ were the most immediate priorities, he said, adding: ‘We cannot deny that breast screening uptake was already in steady decline before the pandemic. Covid has simply accelerated this trend with potentially tragic consequences.’

His Breast Screening Bill, he said, would help the Government to ‘sustain focus and ambition on maximising uptake’ in the NHS Breast Screening Programme as he stressed the importance of ‘early equitable diagnosis’ of breast cancer.

The MP for Winchester recalled being phoned on his stag do in Wales shortly before his mother’s death at the age of 52.

He said: ‘My mother was in hospital by that point with only one possible outcome and she passed away a few days later.’

For cancer, he said early diagnosis ‘can be game changing’, adding: ‘Breast cancer is an incredibly treatable cancer if detected early.’ 

The report states that workforce shortages ‘undermined achievement’ of the Government’s ambitions.

While No10’s goal of hitting 4,126 new staff was in fact exceeded by 226 last year, the report said no new funding was allocated to this goal, with some roles being funded by charities. 

The authors said that there was ‘encouraging’ investment and funding in equipment used to diagnose cancer but not enough staff to run the machines, interpret screening results and deliver innovative treatments.

They claimed the NHS is unlikely to be diagnosing 75 per cent of all cancers at stages one or two by 2028 — another goal — because the pandemic has meant many people will be diagnosed at later stages.  

Meanwhile, personalised care provisions were ‘patchy’ and there were not enough staff in place to provide the level of care patients expected. 

Only half of all patients stated they had a care plan — another Government target for all cancer patients — in 2019, the report claimed.

Twenty per cent of patients said they did not know what a personal care plan is or could not remember if they had one.

And the report identified a ‘postcode lottery’ in access to innovative treatments, including advanced radiotherapy techniques and immunotherapy.

The authors said that cancer services had often been ‘pushed to their very limits in terms of recourses’ even before the Covid pandemic, and they are now facing ‘overwhelming pressure’.

Professor Dacre said: ‘It is clear that cancer services are facing overwhelming pressure.

‘We identified one recurrent theme — shortages of professional staff across cancer services are undermining achievement across every commitment we looked at.

‘Our evaluation has also uncovered stark inequalities across cancer types and different regions in the country, not only on diagnosis but in what that will mean for their chances of survival.’

Eve Byrne, director of advocacy at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: ‘This report brings into sharp focus just how devastating the NHS workforce shortage is, and highlights the sheer lack of realistic targets in place to fill the gaps.

‘We know that the shortage of cancer professionals is the common theme underpinning the raft of issues facing cancer care currently. 

‘Record numbers of people are still facing unacceptably long waits for cancer diagnosis and treatment, causing huge amounts of worry and distress.

‘It is vital that the Government tackles this once and for all by guaranteeing that the upcoming 10-year Cancer Plan includes the long overdue plans for the staff needed to tackle the cancer care backlog, and ensure everybody gets the care they need now and in the future.’

The report comes after Conservative former public health minister Steve Brine warned uptake of breast cancer screening ‘has reached a historic low’.

Mr Brine — who lost his mother to the disease — urged the Government to ‘up our game post-Covid’ on breast cancer screening.

He said: ‘My fear is that this will be another of the terrible legacies of the pandemic.’

Addressing the invite backlog and the ‘drastic drop in attendance’ were the most immediate priorities, he said.

Mr Brine added: ‘We cannot deny that breast screening uptake was already in steady decline before the pandemic. 

‘Covid has simply accelerated this trend with potentially tragic consequences.’

His Breast Screening Bill, he said, would help the Government to ‘sustain focus and ambition on maximising uptake’ in the NHS Breast Screening Programme as he stressed the importance of ‘early equitable diagnosis’ of breast cancer.

The MP for Winchester recalled being phoned on his stag do in Wales shortly before his mother’s death at the age of 52.

He said: ‘My mother was in hospital by that point with only one possible outcome and she passed away a few days later.’

For cancer, he said early diagnosis ‘can be game changing’, adding: ‘Breast cancer is an incredibly treatable cancer if detected early.’  

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