NHS Blood Cancer Care
Debate between Henry Smith and Royston Smith(6 years, 10 months ago)
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Henry Smith
My hon. Friend raises a very valid point. I mentioned best practice for NHS England and talking with the devolved Administrations, but we also have to go internationally for that best practice. She commented on the difficulty of diagnosis and people having to go to the GP many times before diagnosis, which sadly is a common story.
Royston Smith (Southampton, Itchen) (Con)
On the point about people and diagnosis that my hon. Friend just mentioned, is there some weakness within the system that means that GPs are not diagnosing early enough? If so, what does he think should be done about it?
Henry Smith
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his intervention. Yes, that is the problem. One of the issues is just that: the symptoms are all too often commonplace. Particularly at this time of year, many of us are suffering from colds, are feeling tired or have other viruses. I will come on to this later on, but there is a message to GPs that, if one or more of these symptoms is being displayed, they should consider that it could be blood cancer and carry out a relatively simple blood test to try to determine that. Far too often, blood cancer patients have to visit their GPs many times before being referred to hospital.