Chair's statement on improving cancer services and outcomes in England
15 January 2015
A statement from The Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP, Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts:
It is good news that survival rates for cancer patients are improving with 69% of cancer patients now surviving 1 year after diagnosis and 49% surviving 5 years after diagnosis. Yet, I am deeply disappointed that cancer survival rates in England remain poor compared with the best European countries, with rates in England still 10% lower than the European average according to the latest data. This is a shocking disparity.
There are also unacceptable inequalities within England that must be tackled. I’m astounded that, when it comes to getting and surviving cancer, the difference between the most and least deprived is so stark that if mortality rates were the same for the richest and poorest there would be almost 20,000 fewer deaths from cancer each year.
Big gaps in data on the cost and efficiency of cancer care treatments mean that commissioners still cannot make informed choices about how to spend finite resources wisely.
It ought to have set alarm bells ringing when, between January and March 2014, the NHS failed to meet its standard to treat 85% of cancer patients following an urgent referral from their GP within 62 days – the first time this waiting time standard was missed since it was introduced in 2009-10. This target was again not met for the next two quarters of 2014. Between July and September, 5,500 people had to wait more than 62 days for their treatment to start.
I expect to hear how the Department of Health, NHS England, Public Health England and NICE will close the gap in outcomes both within England and with those better performing European countries, when they appear before the Committee on 21 January.