Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Mike Wood and Jo Churchill

Tuesday 29th October 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mike Wood (Dudley South) (Con)]

10. What steps he is taking to improve cancer (a) diagnosis and (b) treatment.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Jo Churchill)]

Cancer survival rates are, thankfully, at a record high. Last year, the NHS carried out 53 million diagnostic tests, which is 53% higher than the number carried out in 2010, but we need to do more. Our aim is to diagnose three quarters of all cancers early, so that 55,000 more people each year survive cancer for another five years. To achieve that, we are radically overhauling screening programmes to improve access and uptake, investing £200 million in diagnostic equipment and accelerating the adoption of the most innovative cancer treatments.

[Mike Wood]

Bowel cancer claims 16,000 lives a year, which is 45 every day, yet just 55% of people in Dudley take up bowel cancer screening. What are the Government doing to ensure that more people take up this life-saving cancer screening?