A postcode lottery still exists with cancer care, MPs say

The Commons public accounts committee said people in northern England were twice as likely to die of cancer than those in parts of the south.

The MPs also said survival rates lagged behind the rest of Europe.

Health Secretary John Reid said the government was "working hard" to ensure cancer was detected earlier.

Committee chairman Edward Leigh said: "It is simply unacceptable that there are postcode lotteries for prescription of anti-cancer drugs, waiting times for scans and even chemotherapy treatments.

"The Department of Health (DoH) and the NHS need to identify exactly where there are such inequities, understand the reasons behind them, and address them without delay."

'Success'

He said national screening programmes, including the ones for breast and cervical cancer, had been a success.

But the fact that the UK "still lags far behind" other European countries on cancer survival rates showed that the DoH and NHS have a great deal to do, he added.

The MPs' report follows last year's warning by the all party parliamentary group on cancer that primary care trusts were struggling to cope.

The latest report, Tackling Cancer Services in England: Saving More Lives, said lower survival rates were because patients from poor areas, especially the old, tended to be diagnosed later.

We need clarity about who is responsible for ensuring that money and treatments reach cancer patients Joanne Rule, CancerBACUP

Patients did not escape criticism in the report, as the committee said the public was sometimes not aware enough about cancer.

The MPs called for more skilled staff to be employed to relieve the pressure and for the DoH to produce simple guidelines explaining to people when to act on potential symptoms.

They also said GPs should be given more guidance and monitoring to improve their ability to identify cancer.

The report was welcomed by cancer charities.

Information

Joanne Rule, chief executive of CancerBACUP, said: "We need clarity about who is responsible for ensuring that money and treatments reach cancer patients."

Macmillan Cancer Relief Chief Executive Peter Cardy said the government needed to accept the recommendations to ensure patients received better information so they could make informed decisions about their treatment and care.

Gordon Baird, rural health spokesperson for the Royal College of GPs, said the problem was not just in deprived inner cities.

"In my own area of rural Scotland, some cancer patients have to travel up to 14 hours in a single day to make out-patient appointments.

"This is wholly unacceptable and people's chances of recovery are being directly reduced as a result. Caner patients need the appropriate level of care close to where they live."

But Health Secretary John Reid defended the government's cancer record.

"We are working hard to make sure that we detect cancer earlier," he said.

"The inequalities highlighted in this report have already been identified by us and are being targeted."

He said 99% of patients were now seen by a specialist within two months of being referred.