We’ve been working really hard to raise pancreatic cancer – as well as cancer more generally – up the agenda in the run up to this Election because it’s a really huge opportunity for us to achieve change.
That’s why, over the past few months, we’ve been calling on political leaders from the major parties to take action through our Demand Survival Now campaign, whoever wins the election. On 4th June, we handed in our 63,000 open letter demanding action on pancreatic cancer and the less survivable cancers. In this, we called for them to:
As part of the One Cancer Voice coalition, we have joined dozens of charities in calling on the next government to publish and implement a long-term cancer strategy. And, in addition to this, we’ve been urging politicians to commit to doubling survival for the less survivable cancers, which have been left behind for far too long.
This is hugely important, because we need to turn the tide on cancer, and particularly pancreatic cancer, in the UK over the coming Parliament. Only this week, we saw new data that cancer survival in the UK is lagging decades behind our European neighbours. We’ve been slipping further and further back over the past decade, but it doesn’t need to be this way.
During the last couple of weeks, our policy team has been looking through what each of the main political parties is promising on the health service and areas that would affect pancreatic cancer. We’re doing this to understand what we’ll need to continue pushing for, whoever becomes the next government.
In a significant step forward, we’ve seen our first specific mention of the less survivable cancers from a Westminster-based political party. However, we believe all major parties will need to go further to change pancreatic cancer (and the other less survivable cancers) survival.
We summarise the key policies and commitments from all the major parties below:
The Conservatives have pledged to publish and implement a Major Conditions Strategy to prevent conditions such as cancer from occurring and ensure those living with them receive the necessary care.
They would also build or modernise 250 GP surgeries, focused on areas of new housing growth. They are also promising to build 50 more Community Diagnostic Centres, resulting in an additional 2.5 million checks a year.
On NHS workforce they have pledged that at the end of the next Parliament, there would be 92,000 more nurses and 28,000 more doctors in the NHS than in 2023.
In the area of research, they plan to remove bureaucratic obstacles to the use of new medicines, such as the NHS Budget Impact Test and would align NHS England’s cost-effectiveness thresholds for new medicines indications with those used by NICE They also want to increase public spending on R&D to £22 billion a year, up from £20 billion this year.
The Green Party want to see a year-on-year reduction in waiting lists, by giving Hospital Trusts improved funding commitments, so that they can better plan to deliver better care.
The Greens have promised to introduce a National Cancer Control Plan. This plan would include a number of measures such as interventions on food, alcohol and tobacco. It would also seek to ensure that the existing NHS target of 75% of cases diagnosed at stage 1 or stage 2 is met by 2028 though investment in primary care and enhanced screening. It would also use the unique information the NHS has to deliver treatment through publicly funded research.
Labour have pledged that in power they would cut NHS waiting times with 40,000 more appointments every week. They have also promised investment to double the number of cancer scanners.
Furthermore, they would shift the focus of the health system towards prevention with a goal to improve healthy life expectancy for all.
They also set a target to halve the gap in healthy life expectancy between different regions of England within ten years. Labour would also seek to pass a bill introducing a progressive smoking ban.
The Lib Dems have committed to a plan to improve cancer survival rates. In power, they would introducing a guarantee that 100% of patients would be able to start treatment within 62 days from urgent referral and recruit more cancer nurses so that every patient has a dedicated specialist supporting them throughout their treatment.
The party have also committed to passing a Cancer Survival Research Act requiring the Government to coordinate and ensure funding for research into the cancers with the lowest survival rates, including pancreatic cancer. They would also seek to halve the time for new treatments to reach patients by expanding the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s capacity.
Plaid Cymru have put forward their own “Stop Cancer Strategy”. This strategy would seek to? ensure no downgrading of urgent suspected cancer referrals and also introduce a greater focus on prehabilitation so that people are better prepared for cancer treatment and to help with their recovery. Their plan would also see them invest in the workforce to recruit, train and retain more oncology staff.
Plaid have also said they want to increase Government investment in research and development, as well as devolve to the Welsh Government Wales’ share of UKRI expenditure.
Reform UK would seek to improve NHS staff retention by allowing all frontline NHS and social care staff to pay zero basic rate tax for 3 years. They also want to cut waiting lists by using UK & overseas independent healthcare providers.
The party would end training caps for all UK medical students and write off student fees pro rata per year over 10 years of NHS service for all doctors, nurses & medical staff. They want to introduce a new NHS Voucher Scheme whereby patients would receive a voucher for private treatment if they can’t see a GP within 3 days, a consultant within 3 weeks, or receive an operation in 9 weeks. They would also like to cut waiting times with a campaign of ‘Pharmacy First, GP Second, A&E Last’, and bring about more beds in A&E and other parts of the NHS.
The SNP want to boost NHS spending by a minimum of £10bn extra each year to improve performance and address inflationary pressures, as well as matching the pay deals for the Scottish NHS in England. Due to devolution, this would result in an extra £1.6bn for the Scottish NHS, they say. They also want to introduce a bill which would prevent any further privatisation of the NHS.