Petitions

Debate between Natalie Elphicke and Amy Callaghan

Tuesday 19th September 2023 Commons Chamber

[Amy Callaghan (East Dunbartonshire) (SNP)]

Getting children, teenagers and young adults with cancer to their treatment costs. Families spend, on average, £250 just getting their child to treatment let alone their lost earnings. Young people with cancer deserve proper Government support. Nearly 12,000 people have now signed this petition, including many of my constituents in East Dunbartonshire. Mr Deputy Speaker, I declare an interest as chair of the all-party parliamentary group on children, teenagers and young adults with cancer, and as a young cancer survivor myself.

The petition states:

The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urge the Government to take immediate action to ensure all young cancer patients are provided with a Young Cancer Patient Travel Fund, which is easily and universally accessible from the point of diagnosis and throughout the duration of their cancer treatment.

And the petitioners remain, etc.

Following is the full text of the petition:

[The petition of residents of the United Kingdom,

Declares that more needs to be done to support young cancer patients and their families with the cost of travel to receive treatment; that it is unacceptable that they are going into debt, struggling to pay their bills, and missing or delaying treatment as a result; and that the current support available is proving inadequate in covering these travel costs.

The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urge the Government to take immediate action to ensure all young cancer patients are provided with a Young Cancer Patient Travel Fund, which is easily and universally accessible from the point of diagnosis and throughout the duration of their cancer treatment.

And the petitioners remain, etc.]

[P002852]

[Mrs Natalie Elphicke (Dover) (Con)]

I rise to present a petition submitted by my fantastic Deal health campaigners Anne Matthews, Marsha Horne, Councillor Trevor Bond and Councillor Tony Grist, whose petition has attracted some 3,000 signatures of people concerned about the closure of phlebotomy services at Deal hospital.

The petitioners state that,

“the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board, at long last, finally recognised that older, poorer, clinically dependent people and children in Deal and Walmer have been inadequately provided for following the closure of blood testing services and the hospital in October 2021”,

and notes that it is

“yet to reinstate the blood testing services at Deal Hospital.

The petitioners therefore request the House of Commons to urge the Government to ensure that Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board reopen blood testing services at Deal Hospital immediately.”

Following is the full text of the petition:

[The petition of the residents of Deal and Walmer,

Declares that the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board, at long last, finally recognised that older, poorer, clinically dependent people and children in Deal and Walmer have been inadequately provided for following the closure of blood testing services and the hospital in October 2021; notes that residents in Deal and Walmer should have local access to these essential blood testing services; further notes that the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board are yet to reinstate the blood testing services at Deal Hospital.

The petitioners therefore request the House of Commons to urge the Government to ensure that Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board reopen blood testing services at Deal Hospital immediately.

And the petitioners remain, etc.]

[P002859]