‘Cancer care money reaching frontline and making a difference’: DOH |
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Wed, 31 Aug 2005 06:05
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Cancer care services in England are receiving record levels of investment, the government said after an inquiry prompted by the Macmillan Cancer Relief’s campaign “Get It Spent Where It’s Meant”.
Monies given towards cancer care were being used to improve services and this was achieving success, the government said. Professor Mike Richards, the Department of Health’s national Director for cancer, who led the inquiry explained that the investment towards this cause was making a real difference with more drugs, more staff with better training and better equipment.
More money was spent towards cancer services since 2000/01 and investment had peaked at £639 million. The National Health Service’s Cancer Plan had itself pledged £570 million.
The findings from Professor Richards’ tracking exercise:
£113m was used to buy new cancer care equipment; £192m was spent on cancer drugs; £230m covered the cost of hiring specialist staff and other services; and £103m was used towards upgrading services, training of staff and palliative care.
Thousand of lives are being saved as services improve with more money than ever before being used towards this effort, he said.
His view was echoed by Health Minister Rosie Winterton who said that cancer mortality in the UK had fallen by over 12 percent in the last six years; which meant around 33,000 lives saved. The record levels of investment had helped reorganise and greatly improve cancer care services. She also pointed out that death rates from cancer in the UK were dropping faster than in any other nation in Europe.
It is expected that these results will satisfy the concerns of certain cancer charities that said money committed towards cancer care was not getting to the frontline. However, a spokesperson of Macmillan said his organisation would keep up the pressure on the Department of Health.
According to Macmillan, the NHS cancer care targets are yet to be achieved and much more needed to be done.
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