North Tyneside MP Mary Glindon has called on the Government to do more to ensure cancer cases are diagnosed quickly and pushed for it to publish a "transparent" NHS workforce plan.
The MP - who saw husband Ray die due to prostate cancer in 2021 - said made the demand in the House of Commons in a question to the Health Secretary Steve Barclay. The Government has been under pressure for several years to publish a plan for how it will staff the NHS in the coming years - but last week Mr Barclay was unable to say when this would happen.
Mary Glindon said: "Analysis by Cancer Research UK projects that by 2040, cancer cases will rise to over half a million new cases a year. Will the Secretary of State confirm when the NHS long-term workforce plan will be published, that it will set out transparent projections for workforce need for the next five, ten and 15 years, and that it will be fully funded to ensure there are enough staff to deliver timely diagnosis and treatment for cancer patients?"
She also asked: "What steps he is taking to improve cancer waiting times and outcomes?"
In response, Mr Barclay said she was right to point to higher demand for cancer services and said: "Demand for cancer services is increasing. We have seen demand up a fifth recently and that is why alongside the long-term workforce plans to which we are committed, we are also funding - with over £5bn of investment - diagnostic centres, surgical hubs and equipment in order to better equip the workforce [with] the skills and equipment we need to treat cancer."
Last week, the Labour Party claimed close to 420,000 extra people this year will wait more than two weeks for a follow-up after having been told by their GP that they might have cancer. That's compared to prior to the 2010 general election.
Labour said the longer waits cannot be blamed on Covid pandemic backlogs. The Government has said it is cutting NHS waiting lists and investing billions in health and social care.
In the Commons, Mr Barclay continued: "We are diagnosing and treating patients faster. In March almost three in four people were diagnosed or given the all clear within two weeks, and nine in ten patients started treatment within a month."
According to NHS England data, in May 2010, 996 people had been waiting more than two months to start their cancer treatment. That figure more than tripled to 3,316 before the pandemic in February 2020.
Just this week, in a debate discussing the future of the NHS, James Duncan - who heads up the Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Trust - said the long-promised workforce plan, which should set out how the Government believes it will meet NHS staffing demands over the years to come, appeared to have been delayed "because it almost certainly comes with a quite substantial price tag".
Organisations including the Royal College of Nursing have called for there to be no more Government delay on this topic - with the plan having initially been slated for 2020. Last autumn, the chancellor Jeremy Hunt said this would come in 2023 - but it is not clear if it will set out funding arrangements to meet the needs identified.
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