Cancer Strategy for England

Will Forster Excerpts

Thursday 31st October 2024 Westminster Hall

[Mr Will Forster (Woking) (LD)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (Clive Jones) for securing this debate on the urgent need for a comprehensive cancer strategy, and particularly for his moving personal story, which I think touched us all. In Woking, my constituency, and Surrey, my county, the situation is increasingly concerning, in a similar way to the situation he presented.

Woking does not have a dedicated cancer centre, meaning my constituents have to travel outside of the area to receive specialist care. This adds to the burden of those already facing the weight of a life-changing diagnosis. My constituency, like the rest of England, really wants a strategy that actively meets the needs of our patients and improves access to timely, high-quality cancer treatment.

This year, 2024, is projected to be the worst year on record for cancer care since the NHS last met its 62-day target in 2015. Already, more than 72,000 patients across the country have not been treated within the NHS’s 62-day window from referral to treatment. If those trends continue, we could see more than 107,000 patients treated outside the standard by the year’s end. That is simply not acceptable.

To put that into perspective, the number of patients who did not start treatment within the 62-day timeframe in 2015 was just under 27,000. By the end of 2023, that figure had risen to more than 100,000, and it continues to climb this year. That near four-fold increase is staggering. Each of those statistics represents real people—our constituents—facing unnecessary delays at the most critical time for them and their families.

The causes are clear, and so are the consequences. Each delay not only impacts the outcome for patients, but places strain on the healthcare system and the wider employment system. What we need now is a long-term, well-resourced cancer strategy, exactly as outlined earlier, that prioritises investment in early diagnosis, improves treatment infrastructure and supports the research needed to make real progress in combating cancer. Patients in Woking and across the whole country deserve nothing less. A national cancer strategy would help to reduce the postcode lottery for cancer care, ensure prompt treatment and provide patients with the security of knowing that our health system is equipped to meet their needs. I urge the Government, and particularly the Minister, to work with us to reverse this distressing trend and deliver the strategy that we desperately need.