Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential implications for his policies of the proportion of bowel cancers diagnosed at each stage in the last five years.

The Health Mission sets the objective of building a National Health Service fit for the future. As part of that work, and in response to Lord Darzi’s report, we have launched an extensive programme of engagement to develop a 10-Year Health Plan to reform the NHS. The plan will set out a bold agenda to deliver on the three big shifts from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention.

Lord Darzi’s independent investigation into the NHS highlighted that there is more to be done to increase the speed at which patients are diagnosed with and treated for cancer. His report will inform our 10-year plan to reform the NHS, which will include further details on how we will improve cancer diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes.

The NHS will maximise the pace of roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity, delivering the final year of the three-year investment plan for establishing Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) and ensuring timely implementation of new CDC locations and upgrades to existing CDCs, with capacity prioritised for cancer diagnostics.

We are committed to getting the NHS diagnosing cancer earlier and treating it faster, so that more patients survive this horrible set of diseases. This includes bowel cancer patients in Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and Buckinghamshire.