Record levels of cancer care funding

Tuesday, 30 August 2005 12:00 AM

The government is now spending record amounts on cancer services, figures out today show.

Since 2000/01, a total of £639 million extra is being spent on cancer services - £69 million more than the government was committed to.

The figures came to light after the government launched a tracking initiative to check money was getting through to the front line.

Health minister Rosie Winterton said it showed how the government was now "delivering better treatment, more quickly, to more people than ever before".

But cancer charity Macmillan Cancer Relief said the tracking exercise was only launched after MPs and cancer charities highlighted that funds were not being spent where they were needed.

The figures show £192 million was spent on cancer drugs since 2000/1, with £230 million going to other services, such as specialist staff.

Another £113 million was invested in new equipment, and £103 million went towards staff training, modernising services and patient care.

National director for cancer professor Mike Richards - who undertook the tracking exercise - said the figures showed funding for cancer care was "making a real difference".

"More money than ever before is now going into tackling the disease and thousands of lives are being saved," he said.

Ms Wintherton added that the UK has "some of the fastest falling death rates from cancer in Europe".

"The latest figures show that cancer mortality has fallen by over 12 per cent in the last six years. This equates to around 33,000 lives saved over this period."

She said there was still more to do, but the government was delivering "better treatment, more quickly, to more people than ever before and there are thousands of people alive and well who would not be without these improvements".

But the chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Relief, Peter Cardy, said the tracking exercise happened for one reason alone: "[Because] charities and MPs asked why cancer money wasn't getting spent where it's meant.

"Much more still needs to be done to meet the NHS cancer targets and modernise cancer services to improve the quality of the entire patient journey," he said.

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