Three weeks ago we asked you to help us speak with One Cancer Voice by signing the Parliamentary Petition calling for the Government to urgently invest in establishing the UK as a world-beating force in cancer survival and care.
Thanks to your help, the petition reached over 53,000 signatures and a response was provided by the Government on 19 October 2021 stating that “cancer diagnosis and treatment has remained a priority throughout the pandemic. Funding for the NHS workforce will be confirmed as part of the Spending Review”.
Following the announcement last week as part of the Spending Review that “the government will provide hundreds of millions of pounds in additional funding over the SR21 period to ensure a bigger and better trained NHS workforce”, we have once again joined with 49 other cancer charities to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care whether this announcement will meet the needs of people affected by cancer enabling the Government to deliver on its commitments on cancer diagnosis, survival and care.
Download the new One Cancer Voice letter to the Government
One Cancer Voice letter to the Governent – PDF
As part of the One Cancer Voice group, we've written a new open letter to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care whether the recent announcement in the Spending Review will meet the needs of people affected by cancer enabling the Government to deliver on its commitments on cancer diagnosis, survival and care.
As a collective of cancer charities, we recognise and welcome commitments in the Spending Review, notably the additional investment to tackle the backlog and the capital investment for Community Diagnostic Centres which will play a critical role in improving diagnosis of cancer.
However, we fear this investment won’t deliver the desired outcome if it’s not mirrored by an accompanying increase in staffing levels to deliver these services. We are therefore seeking urgent clarity on the level of funding that Health Education England will receive and how additional investment will be targeted.
Long-term investment in the cancer workforce is critical to clearing the cancer backlog in time, meeting early diagnosis targets and improving how care is provided. Without this action, to meet demand for diagnosis and care, patients will suffer and the good investments announced last week will fail to deliver.
We’ll keep you updated on this issue, and our work with the One Cancer Voice coalition. If you’ve been affected by not being able to access nursing support and would like to join the campaign you can do so by sharing your story today.