Leukaemia

I sympathise profoundly with anyone who is affected by cancer, particularly fast-acting cancers such as acute myeloid leukaemia, and I pay tribute to those working to treat this and I share public concerns about leukaemia outcomes.

You may be aware that in July 2024, the Government commissioned an immediate and independent investigation of the NHS across England, which set out the profound challenges faced by the health service and the scale of work needed to improve cancer survival rates. The Government is committed to fighting cancers like leukaemia on all fronts, from prevention to diagnosis, to treatment and research.

I welcome that in the Autumn Budget, the Government allocated an extra £25.7 billion to the NHS for this year and next, the biggest increase in NHS spending since 2010, excluding COVID-19 years. This funding will support the delivery of an extra 40,000 elective appointments a week, and is part of our plan to ensure patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from their referral to treatment.

The Budget also included support for NHS performance across secondary and emergency care, with £1.5 billion for new surgical hubs to help build capacity for over 30,000 additional procedures and more than 1.25 million additional diagnostic tests.

Waits for radiotherapy have been identified as a major barrier to effective treatment, and £70 million has therefore been provided to invest in new radiotherapy machines, ensuring cancer patients benefit from the most up-to-date technology.

I also want to see investment in the right technology in order to shift focus to early diagnosis and intervention, and I understand that the Government recently announced funding for a range of new UK-created therapies for cancer that will be trialled in the UK.

These innovations have the potential to transform treatments for NHS patients. Finding cancers like leukaemia earlier will give patients more choice of treatment and enable us to save lives. More broadly, I look forward to the Government’s 10-year health plan for the NHS, which will set out the long-term vision for fixing the NHS. However, I recognise that improving cancer outcomes requires more targeted actions, and welcome that the Government will publish a separate National Cancer Plan for England, as recommended by the preceding Health and Social Care Committee.

Access to cancer care must be at the heart of our health mission to build an NHS that is fit for the future.