Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to improve the treatment of Cholangiocarcinoma cancers; and whether a proportion of the additional funding allocated to her Department in the Spring Budget 2024 will be used to treat Cholangiocarcinoma cancers.

Cancer is being diagnosed at an earlier stage, more often, with survival rates improving across almost all types of cancer, and the National Health Service has been seeing and treating record numbers of cancer patients over the last two years. Improving early diagnosis of cancer, including cholangiocarcinoma cancers, is a priority for the NHS. The NHS has an ambition to diagnose 75% of cancers at stage 1 or 2 by 2028, which will help tens of thousands of people live for longer.

Although funding for treatment isn’t allocated for specific cancers, the Government has provided significant additional funding to the NHS and adult social care in England. Measures introduced at the Spring Budget will protect levels of funding for the NHS in England in real terms in 2024/25, by providing an extra £2.5 billion for 2024/25, meaning a total budget of £164.9 billion.

While this additional spending is needed, the Government recognises that more money cannot always be the answer to improving outcomes for patients. Alongside the £2.5 billion of extra funding for day-to-day activities, the Government will invest £3.4 billion to reform the way the NHS works. This funding will significantly reduce the 13 million hours of time doctors spend on poor IT, freeing up significant capacity, and revolutionising treatment for a range of illnesses such as cancer and strokes. This will double the investment in technological and digital transformation in the NHS in England, and turn the NHS into one of the most digitally enabled, productive healthcare systems in the world.

On 14 August 2023, the Government published the Major Conditions Strategy’s Case for Change and Our Strategic Framework, which sets out our approach to making the choices over the next five years that will deliver the most value when facing the health challenges of today and of the decades ahead, including for cancer. It will look at the treatment and prevention of cancer, covering the patient pathway. The strategy will look at a wide range of interventions and enablers, to improve outcomes and experience for cancer patients.