Health: Cancer

Baroness Masham of Ilton Excerpts

Thursday 11th November 2010 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Masham of Ilton]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for raising this important matter today. I am a member of the All-Party Group on Cancer and I know there are many improvements that should be made.

I know two people who went to our local GP’s surgery for help, only to be told to come back later if they did not feel better. For Lucy, had there not been a three-month delay the outcome might have been different. She was diagnosed with bowel cancer eventually. She had a very hard struggle, which she fought bravely until she died. My other friend went three times to the surgery but was not diagnosed. It is often said that men are loath to turn up at doctors’ surgeries but he did. In the end, with no diagnosis, Mike was taken by his son to a clinic here in London and was diagnosed with prostate cancer straight away. Unfortunately, the delay meant the cancer had progressed to his bones. He is now having hormone treatment. If I know of two late diagnoses from the same surgery, how many must there be throughout the UK?

I read in the Times on Monday that hundreds of people could be saved by a new mix of prostate cancer therapies. It is found that the results in Canada, the USA, Australia and Germany in the treatment of prostate cancer are better than those in the UK. We should find out why this is so. Does the noble Earl agree that when the GP consortia are in place, they should have access to the expertise available to cancer networks to help the effective commissioning of cancer services? Cancer is a set of 200-plus different diseases, most of which have highly complex care pathways. Understanding is needed for both the clinical and longer-term needs of people living with and after cancer.

The NICE appraisal system is inappropriate for dealing with ultra-orphan treatments. It seems appropriate for the remit of the National Specialised Commissioning Advisory Group to be extended to include the commissioning of all ultra-orphan cancer treatments. It is essential that any new decision-making process should be transparent, fair and speedy. There is fear that, with a new organisation within the National Health Service, there might be extended postcode lottery prescribing. Can the Minister assure us that this will not happen? Many pharmaceutical companies are not interested in orphan drugs since they are not cost-effective. However, to the individual patient they are vital.

This week it was announced that an NHS hospital has a cyberknife to treat difficult cancer tumours. This is excellent news. However, last year, on a visit with the health group to the London clinic that had installed a cyberknife, we were told that Turkey has seven. At a drop-in session at St Thomas’s Hospital a few weeks ago, it was shown how the incidence and mortality rates for both prostate and breast cancer in different regions of the country have wide variations. There is a pledge which I hope all Members taking part in this debate will sign. It is:

“I support the UK’s fight against cancer and urge the government to continue in its efforts to bring our survival rates in line with our European counterparts”.

I have been told by a man who has an elderly mother living in south-east Kent, who has cancer and is treated at two different hospitals, that the voluntary drivers who give friendly support to the patients have been told they will no longer receive help with the cost of their petrol. They have also been told that they can no longer have the use of a room with a kettle to have their sandwiches and a drink. These budgetary cuts seem to hit the most vulnerable patients with grass-roots needs. In so many ways throughout a patient’s journey with cancer and other long-term conditions, volunteers—who have often gone through treatment themselves—give great support. This can be lost and dismissed in the costs of high-tech treatment by managers who forget the human needs of a patient’s journey.