Cancer Care (England and Wales)

Mark Williams Excerpts

Tuesday 12th February 2013 Westminster Hall

[Alun Cairns]

I am grateful for the right hon. Gentleman’s valid point. I absolutely endorse the role that independent and charitable organisations can play; I quoted Breakthrough Breast Cancer. Emotional support is exceptionally important, and that relates to my point about delays in receiving treatment. A consultant can reassure people on many occasions, give a realistic assessment of the condition and provide the wider support available from some of the charitable organisations that have been mentioned.

[Mr Mark Williams (Ceredigion) (LD)]

Will my hon. Friend acknowledge the importance of care in the recovery of cancer patients? Statistics from Macmillan Cancer Support reveal that 19% of 18,000 newly diagnosed cancer patients in Wales were deemed to lack that kind of support, not just during diagnosis or treatment but, critically, in aftercare.

[Alun Cairns]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for sharing those data. In interventions, hon. Members have talked not only about pre-screening, awareness, social issues and treatment, which I will focus on, but the aftercare that is needed, the emotional support that is provided, and the need for and responsibility and role of a whole host of agencies, including those in the charitable sector.

Returning to the point about treatment, I had been comparing the different approaches to breast cancer in England and Wales. The wait before seeing a consultant in England is 10 days. It is interesting to note that the Welsh Government removed 10-day monitoring in 2006. Although data are recorded locally, they are not published nationally. In the interests of transparency, it would be helpful if those data were published to allow fair and just comparisons. Waiting time targets improve survival outcomes, reduce emotional distress and improve the quality of life for people with cancer and those who turn out not to have cancer.

There are similarly alarming figures for prostate cancer. Five-year survival rates can be higher than 80%. There are no figures comparing the rates of the home nations, but the side-effects of the sort of treatment one receives for prostate cancer can be significant and can have a huge impact on future lifestyle. Again, there is a different approach to prostate cancer care in the two nations.

I want to draw attention to the availability of treatment. There was significant attention some years ago to access to brachytherapy. Even when it was finally approved by the Welsh authorities, after having been widely available in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, the threshold for intervention was much higher in Wales. As far as I know, that remains the case.

Currently an identical debate is focused on robotic surgery. A constituent who suffers from prostate cancer, who is qualified medically and who consulted widely before making the decision with his clinicians on the most suitable form of treatment for himself, wrote to the Welsh Health Minister. He shared a copy of the letter with me, in which he said:

“I was both surprised and disappointed to find that this option is not available to Welsh men in Wales and that a significant number of Welsh men are opting to go to England, where this technology is established and available throughout the country.”