Sajid Javid declares ‘war on cancer’ as 6m people wait for diagnosis and treatment

Sajid Javid has vowed to wage a “war on cancer” amid warnings that half of women with suspected breast cancer are waiting too long to see a specialist.

Health officials are drawing up plans to respond to the largest backlog of people waiting for care in the history of the NHS, with more than 6 million people in total on waiting lists.

Bids have already been invited to run a network of 150 “one-stop shops” offering cancer tests in shops and retail parks, in an effort to speed up diagnosis.

On Tuesday, Mr Javid told the Commons that he was working on “a new vision to radically improve the outcome of cancer patients across the United Kingdom”, saying it was wrong to say cancer had been “deprioritised” by the pandemic.

During a debate, the Health Secretary was repeatedly questioned about the tragic consequences of delays in cancer diagnosis and treatment, including staff shortages which meant a man with kidney disease could not be treated.

The Health Secretary said the pandemic had “exposed huge health disparities in this country”.

He told the Commons: “It's clear to me that we need to go much further on cancer - not only to catch up on cancer referrals, on diagnosis, on treatment and radical innovation, but to improve the persistently poor outcomes that patients in this country have long experienced compared to other countries.

“It’s time we launched a war on cancer and I’m working on a new vision to radically improve the outcome of cancer patients across the United Kingdom, and I’ll have more to say on this in due course.”

It came as analysis of official figures by Labour showed almost half of women given an urgent referral for suspected breast cancer waited longer than the two-week target to see a specialist.

In total, 23,704 women - 48.2 per cent of all such referrals - waited more than two weeks to see a specialist in November. The figure is four times as many as the 5,280 in September, when 12.5 per cent of such referrals waited longer than two weeks.

On Tuesday, Wes Streeting, Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary, who was treated for kidney cancer last year, told MPs about a man admitted to hospital with kidney cancer that had spread to his lymph nodes and lungs, who died last Friday as a result of delays in care.

The Labour frontbencher said: “Last week, his wife contacted me in desperation because he had been unable to access treatment to clear a blockage in his lungs, because the thoracic ward at a nearby hospital had closed because of staffing shortages.

“After frantically, desperate chasing by his family and NHS staff, he was finally admitted to the Bristol Royal Infirmary last week, but unfortunately his condition had deteriorated so he couldn't receive treatment.”