Cancer Services (Hansard, 18 April 2002)

§ Lord Clement-Jones
asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether National Health Service cancer units are receiving the necessary resources to improve services.

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath)
My Lords, the cancer plan is being backed by a large increase in funding for cancer services. Last year, funding rose by £280 million. This year it will be over £400 million.

§ Lord Clement-Jones
My Lords, I welcome the Minister's reply, but the recent report of the Science and Technology Committee demonstrates that only one-eighth of the £280 million allocated to cancer services has actually been received by those cancer services. The committee stated: We consider it dissembling to allocate funding to cancer care with great publicity without taking even the simplest precaution to ensure that it reaches the intended areas". Do the Chancellor's Statement yesterday and the Secretary of State's Statement today demonstrate that the Government will now move from hypothecation and earmarking to trying to ensure that the money is spent in the proper places?

§ Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
My Lords, what my right honourable friend the Chancellor made clear in his Statement yesterday is our fundamental support for the principle of the NHS and the provision of resources to support it over many years to come. With regard to the question of hypothecation and allocations, the noble Lord will know that the Government regard cancer services as a priority. That is why we have identified the sums of money that we believe should be spent by the National Health Service. Of course we will be responding to the report of the Select Committee in the other place in due course. However, the targets and the outcomes that have been set for the delivery of the cancer plan are making encouraging progress. Of course we will monitor the spending of resources and in the future we shall discuss those matters with strategic health authorities. However, I am satisfied that good progress is being made.

§ Baroness Masham of Ilton
My Lords, does the Minister agree that there is a serious shortage of 1074 radiographers and radiologists, who are vital for the quick and efficient diagnosis of the disease? Will he do something about it?

§ Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
My Lords, I agree with the noble Baroness and I pay tribute to the work undertaken by radiotherapy departments. Staffing levels of therapy radiographers have increased by more than 9 per cent since 1997. We wish to continue to make progress in that area.

§ Baroness Hayman
My Lords, while yesterday's announcements were enormously welcome in terms of both funding and accountability for the health service, my noble friend will be aware that there have been grave concerns about the ineffective ring-fencing of moneys under the cancer plan for last year. I declare an interest, of which the House is aware, as chairman of Cancer Research UK. Can my noble friend give some reassurance on both the monitoring of spending this year in order that this year's allocation will not be subject to such widespread doubt, and, equally, on the publication of the figures for last year's spending? If, as is feared, there has been a grave shortfall, will he give an undertaking that that will be made good?

§ Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
My Lords, I doubt very much whether any hard evidence is available at the moment to suggest a grave shortfall. We shall monitor the end-of-year figures. I have already given an undertaking to the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, to discuss those with strategic health authorities because clearly the matter will need to be taken forward in discussions about future allocations. I reiterate that considerable progress is being made in the area of cancer services through an increase in staff numbers and equipment, and in delivery on the two-week wait target. I am satisfied that the NHS is doing a great deal to ensure that we deliver on the cancer plan targets.

§ Earl Russell
My Lords, I recently visited a patient in the intensive care unit of one of the best London teaching hospitals, for which I have nothing but praise. That hospital had no working morphine pump. Does the Minister agree that when money becomes available it must be used for purposes such as that—paying debts and mending holes in the roof—before it improves the services? The job is similar to feeding a famine victim—it cannot be done rapidly. Will he try to ensure that the press remembers that?

§ Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
My Lords, I agree that we cannot turn around overnight a service such as the NHS. That is why we need the step change approach taken by the Government and the levels of investment that we have announced. As to equipment, I shall certainly look into the specific matter raised by the noble Earl. I agree that it is vital to get more equipment into cancer services. We are doing so. We also need to ensure that the fabric of the buildings in which the equipment is provided is put right.

§ Lord Wade of Chorlton
My Lords, is the Minister aware that at the Christie Hospital in Manchester we 1075 now have the leading radiotherapy research centre in the world? We have recently installed the latest equipment available anywhere in the world. We paid for it entirely through funds raised locally, without any government resources—and no one was taxed a penny.

§ Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
My Lords, I am very glad to hear that.