Wokingham MP Clive Jones has secured a commitment from the government to deliver a National Cancer Strategy for England.
Speaking in a Westminster Hall debate in parliament last week, which Clive Jones sponsored, health minister Stephen Kinnock MP said: “The Secretary of State [for Health] has been clear in his view that there does need to be a national cancer plan, so we are now in discussions about what form that plan should take and what its relation to the 10-year health plan and this government’s wider health mission should be.”
In further remarks, the minister committed to a standalone cancer strategy, to follow on from the Government’s broader 10-year health plan.
Clive Jones, who himself survived breast cancer in 2008, secured the debate in Westminster Hall to discuss his proposed National Cancer Strategy Bill, introduced in the House of Commons on October 21.
Speakers from all major political parties spoke in support of a strategy during the debate.
Clive said: “I am obviously delighted to have secured this commitment from the Government, but now the time has come for them to deliver on their promise today.
“England is an outlier in lacking a national strategy, both internationally and within the UK.
“We have been behind the curve on this for far too long.
“I’m in discussion with a whole range of cancer charities and advocacy groups as part of the process of bringing forward the National Cancer Strategy Bill, and working with them I stand ready to work constructively with the Government to make this much-needed strategy a reality.”
Speaking about cancer care in Wokingham, he added: “Alongside my national ambitions for a cancer strategy, I continue my fight for health services in Wokingham.
“The lack of easy access to GPs here means that more people with cancer locally will be diagnosed late or not at all – and as I remarked in Westminster Hall some of the cancer wards at the Royal Berkshire Hospital were built in the 19th century and are woefully outdated.
“My fight for the government to deliver the new hospital and an improved GP service here continues unabated.
“We do need a cancer strategy, but in order to deliver it we also need a functioning health service.”
