Government ‘needs to redress cancer policy’

Cancer Research UK has urged the government to revise its cancer policy to account for future challenges in cancer care.

Because of demographical changes due to occur in the next 25 years, additional strain on NHS resources could appear and patients could be affected without prior planning.

The charity’s chief executive, Professor Alex Markham, said the government only has a valid cancer policy until 2010, meaning a new strategy needs to be developed as a matter of priority.

He told BBC One’s Breakfast programme: “This is the start of the process to persuade the government, through the National Cancer Director, the so-called cancer tsar, to put a new plan in place so that we are ready to cope with the challenges to come.”

“As things stand at the moment that plan ceases in four years’ time and with think that now is the time to start planning for what we are going to do to address the challenges of cancer in the next decades,” he added.

Professor Markham also said he was concerned about the effects of new government initiatives like payment-by-results and foundation hospitals on cancer care.

A report from the King’s Fund released today has revealed that the number of newly diagnosed patients with cancer each year was likely to increase as the population grows.

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