Oral Answers to Questions

Paul Uppal Excerpts

Tuesday 24th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The question was about Chester, so there was no particular reason to talk about Wales.

[Paul Uppal (Wolverhampton South West) (Con)]

5. What assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the most recent rates of cancer survival.

[Mark Menzies (Fylde) (Con)]

6. What assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the most recent rates of cancer survival.

[The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Jeremy Hunt)]

This Government inherited the worst cancer survival rates in western Europe and, as we have just heard, we have invested a record £450 million in improving early diagnosis, which means that record numbers of people are being tested and record numbers of people are being treated.

[Paul Uppal]

I thank the Secretary of State for his response. Last year, I met cancer patients and carers with the aim of looking at how we can improve cancer survival rates so that they are among the best in western Europe. The main observation was that early diagnosis is key. Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is absolutely crucial that we support GPs to find and identify the early signs and symptoms of cancer so that we can improve survival rates?

[Mr Hunt]

That is absolutely right. What is said by everyone who has been wrestling with this problem about why our survival rates are not as good as we want them to be is that early diagnosis and access to the latest drugs are the two critical things. My hon. Friend will be pleased that 9,000 people in his region have accessed the cancer drugs fund and that, in his constituency, 300 more people every year are now being treated for cancer than was the case four years ago.