Cancer Care (England and Wales)

Debate between Alun Cairns and Lilian Greenwood

Tuesday 12th February 2013 Westminster Hall

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

Thank you, Mrs Riordan, for calling me to speak and for chairing this debate. It is a privilege to serve under your chairmanship.

The subject under discussion is cancer care in England and Wales. Naturally, I understand that the Minister who is here is only responsible for treatment and care in England, and that health is a devolved matter, with responsibility for it in Wales falling to the Welsh Government. However, the different approaches will allow each nation to share best practice and compare outcomes, with the objective of raising the standard of cancer care wherever we live.

I do not want this debate to be party political; this issue is far too important for that. I want to compare the facts and to recognise success, wherever that may be found. The starting point for the debate must be mortality rates or, to put it another way, the success of any medical intervention. Overall, life expectancy among men in Wales is 77.6 years, and in England it is 78.6 years. Among women, life expectancy is 81.8 years in Wales and 82.6 years in England. I am sorry to say that the figures for Scotland and Northern Ireland are worse than the figures for either England or Wales.

However, focusing purely on life expectancy is too broad an approach, and we need to consider the influences on life expectancy. There may be historical and social reasons for the differences in life expectancy, but it is fair to say that cancer survival rates are a significant factor, which brings me to my key points. The most commonly diagnosed cancers are breast cancer among women and prostate cancer among men.

[Lilian Greenwood (Nottingham South) (Lab)]

Is the hon. Gentleman aware of the “Hear me now” report by Rose Thompson, the chief executive of BME Cancer Communities, which was launched here in Parliament yesterday? It revealed that the death rate from prostate cancer is 30% higher among black men than among their white counterparts. Does he agree that such inequalities in cancer outcomes must be addressed?

[Alun Cairns]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for making an extremely valid point. The collection of data is exceptionally important, to identify which groups are potentially more vulnerable or which groups are not seeking the right sorts of treatment. Comparison between the home nations is important, but so is comparison between groups within the home nations, in order to bring the data together. It is exceptionally important if we are to reach the right conclusions.

I will focus on breast cancer to begin with. As I have already said, the mortality rate from breast cancer in England is 24.3 per 100,000 people, and in Wales it is 25.8 per 100,000 people. Clearly, those are worrying data, and it is worth considering the different approaches to treatment in the two nations.

In England, a patient concerned about the possibility of breast cancer can expect to see a consultant within 10 working days of the GP referral. In Wales, there is a different approach, which means that a GP differentiates between urgent and non-urgent cases. In cases that are deemed urgent, 95% of patients should expect treatment to start within 62 days, and in cases deemed non-urgent, the patient should expect treatment to start within 26 weeks. I want to underline this situation: a woman in England who is concerned about the risk of breast cancer will be reassured, or have her case elevated to the next level, within 10 days. In Wales, however, a patient has no such guarantee of consultant expertise until much, much later in the process.

We need to recognise that these are different measures and approaches. Breakthrough Breast Cancer has a helpful quote. It says that waiting for a referral is like being “left in the dark”.