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Report puts government cancer plan in doubtDate: 02/11/2007 09:17:43
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The government's cancer strategy has been accused of failing to bring about a significant fall in the number of avoidable deaths in a new report by the thinktank Civitas.
Analysts claim that the NHS Cancer Plan's predictions for rates of avoidable deaths are not being met, with the decline in deaths slowing year on year between 1999 and 2005.
The report also suggests that the £2 billion funding boost for cancer treatment has failed to have a noticeable impact.
Report author James Gubb said that the "flat-lining" of improvement in preventable deaths was "a massive worry".
"Crucially, this study isolates conditions where it's reasonable to expect death to be averted even after the onset of disease," he explained.
"With top quality health care for all in England and Wales there's no intrinsic reason why mortality rates shouldn't fall to the levels of the best international performers."
However, Cancer Research UK pointed out that the report only takes a narrow view of the situation as it only looked at seven of the 200 forms of cancer.
"The latest research shows that UK cancer mortality rates have fallen by 12 per cent over the last decade so it would be misleading to suggest that the Cancer Plan has been ineffective," Richard Davidson, director of policy and public affairs, told the BBC.
However, Mr Davidson acknowledged that there is "still work to do" and called for greater government action in the areas of cancer prevention, tobacco control and obesity.
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