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From
House of Commons Hansard 1st March 2006
Interventions:
Mr. Khan:
My right hon. Friend has talked about the importance of
detection and early diagnosis. Will she commend the network
of pilot clinics that has been set up at St. George's
hospital to examine the links between family history and the
diagnosis of cancer? The project is already a success in
south London. Does she think that it could be extended
further around the country?
Ms Hewitt: I commend the excellent
work that is being done at St. George's. The targeted
identification and screening of individuals whose family
history suggests that they are at greater risk than the rest
of the population will play an increasingly important part
in the early diagnostic work that we do.
*******
Mr. Sadiq Khan (Tooting)
(Lab): The hon. Gentleman compared
the UK to European countries with better success rates, but
will he agree that we have seen improvements over the past
eight years? In 1997, Labour was the first major political
party to mention the word "cancer" in a manifesto. In 1997,
we had a Green Paper that set a target on death rates for 13
years' time and, in 1999, for the first time, a directorate
was set up to deal with cancer. Again for the first time, in
2000, we had a 10-year plan to fight cancer. Is it not the
decades of neglect that have led to the problems that the
hon. Gentleman mentions?
Mr. Baron: I suggest to the hon.
Gentleman that there is no point just talking about
cancer—we want action, and we are trying to look forward in
this debate. As I said earlier, there have been no marked
improvements in mortality rates, despite all the money that
has gone into the NHS. The Government can produce as many
papers as they like, but what we need are improvements on
the ground.
*******
Mr. Khan:
My right hon. Friend will have heard hon. Members
cherry-picking from the progress report on the Government's
NHS cancer plan by the Public Accounts Committee, which is
excellently chaired by the hon. Member for Gainsborough (Mr.
Leigh). Far be it from me to engage in political
point-scoring, but will she comment on that report? It said:
"Across
the country significant progress has been made in
improving cancer services and managing them more
effectively, in particular, speeding access to cancer
diagnosis and treatment."
Ms Hewitt: My hon. Friend is right to
draw attention to that valuable report, particularly its
commendation of the significant improvements that have
already taken place. Obviously we will respond to it in
detail in due course.
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