Politicians aren’t discussing Britain’s woeful cancer survival rates

Last week, amid a flurry of election policies and debates, a striking report found that cancer survival in England currently lags up to 25 years behind European countries like Sweden, Norway and Denmark. From bowel cancer to breast diagnoses, England is firmly lagging behind our Scandinavian neighbours. What’s to blame?

The revelation by Macmillan Cancer Support is the legacy of many years of underfunding, resulting in delays to diagnosis and treatment. England has less scanners, beds, cancer specialists & nurses per head of population than comparable countries. An NHS spokesperson quite rightly pointed out that more patients are being treated for cancer than ever before and that cancer survival in England is at an all-time high – but that doesn’t mean our health service isn’t still struggling. The simple fact is that dedicated funding has not kept pace with the rising cancer incidence driven by an increasing, ageing and more and more unhealthy population.