Cancer plan changes are a 'disaster' for patients as experts call for politicians to be legally bound to improve outcomes
A plan to see the NHS in England deliver "world-class cancer care" is being delayed, diluted and underfunded, according to experts.
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It comes after health officials made a correction to the National Cancer Plan which alters a pledge made in the original document.
The plan, published in February, said that the Government will pay £70 million for 28 new radiotherapy machines which would lead to 27,500 more patients to receive treatment each year.
But officials made a correction to the document, highlighting how this investment will lead to 27,500 more “treatments” annually.
Experts said that radiotherapy is delivered over a course of treatments, which can be anywhere between five and 25 sessions depending on the type of cancer and treatment plan.
They said this means fewer patients will receive treatment than originally suggested.
Professor Pat Price, from Imperial College London and chair of Radiotherapy UK, said: “Cancer care needs real authority to deliver the right change and a clear line of accountability if we are going to turn this crisis around.
“The correction to the cancer plan shows exactly why conflating patients with treatments is not a trivial mistake; it can dramatically overstate how many people new treatments will help and lead to dangerous underinvestment.
“And this goes beyond one error. Frontline clinicians are telling us that across the country the changes radiotherapy cancer treatments need are simply not happening, and local planning for new machines and treatment centres can feel almost non-existent.”
An analysis by cancer experts, published in The Lancet Oncology, says that ministers “make national promises but do not have the levers to ensure delivery”.
“This situation is a disaster for patients with cancer,” the authors wrote.
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They said that there are “are no consequences” if targets set out in the Nation Cancer Plan are not reached as they called for legal accountability.
They wrote that the Health Bill “contains no statutory duties to improve cancer outcomes” and said that “improvement will only occur
with a statutory requirement to measure and report meaningful cancer metrics”.
The authors concluded that policy documents such as the National Cancer Plan “can and are being delayed, diluted, underfunded, or simply not delivered without consequence”.
They added: “Plans express intent; legislation creates enduring obligations and accountability. England no longer has a cancer plan problem; it has an accountability problem.”
Prof Price, lead author of the paper, said: “Ensuring cancer patients get their treatment on time needs to be a priority, and that is why we are calling for accountability to be enshrined in legislation.”
Mark Lawler, professor of digital health at Queen’s University Belfast, and senior author on the paper, added: “Currently there are no consequences if targets are not reached.
“This is why we are calling for legal accountability. It works well in Denmark, which shows the greatest improvement in cancer outcomes in Europe, while the UK flounders.
“It can work here, but only if we have the courage to make this decision to embed a legal right for cancer patients. It’s the only way we see to avoid an impending cancer epidemic from which we may never recover.”
The Department of Health and Social Care has been approached for comment.