What are political parties promising for bowel cancer patients?
Thursday 27 June 2024
This General Election we’re here to help you get to the bottom of all the campaigning around the NHS and find out how each party plans to improve bowel cancer services for you and your loved ones.
Our Policy team have looked at the pledges from the UK wide political parties and found those that could affect diagnosis, treatment and care for the disease.
Most of the policies below relate to England only. This is because, in England, health is managed by the politicians who will form a government in Westminster after the General Election. In the devolved nations, health is managed by their own respective governments and legislatures. For example, in Wales the Welsh Government runs the health service and the Welsh Parliament will have its own election in May 2026.
What are the Conservatives pledging?
- To publish a Major Conditions Strategy, a five-year strategy to improve outcomes for cancer and other major conditions including cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal disorders, mental health, dementia, and chronic respiratory disease
- To invest £3.4 billion into new technology to “transform the NHS for staff and for patients” with the intention to free up doctors and nurses time to focus on patient care
- To create a “smoke free generation” by bringing forward the “Tobacco and Vapes Bill”, that would ban people born after January 2009 from ever legally buying cigarettes. Evidence suggests 7% of bowel cancers are linked to smoking
You can find their full manifesto here.
What are Labour pledging?
- To deliver an extra two million NHS operations, scans and appointments every year using spare capacity from private health care and more weekend appointments to try to reduce waiting times for patients
- To try to catch more cancers earlier by creating a ‘Fit for the Future’ fund to double the number of CT and MRI scanners – from what we know, this does not include colonoscopy kit or equipment
- To match the Conservatives pledge to ensure the next generation can never legally buy cigarettes
You can find their full manifesto here.
What are the Liberal Democrats pledging?
- To make a “guarantee” that every single cancer patient would be seen with 62 days of an urgent referral
- To review diagnostics across the NHS and launch a “10-year Diagnostics Plan” to improve diagnosis rates
- To recruit 3,400 additional cancer nurses to ensure everyone had access to a specialist cancer nurse throughout their treatment
You can find their full manifesto here.
The Green Party and the Reform Party
Neither the Green nor Reform party manifestos have any pledges directly related to cancer care.
The Green Party manifesto commits to an extra £48 billion spending on the NHS by 2030 (this comes as an extra £8 billion per year and then an extra £20 billion on infrastructure like hospitals).
You can find their full manifesto here.
The Reform Party are pledging to incentivise the use of private providers and increase the uptake of health insurance to reduce pressure on the NHS.
You can find their full manifesto here.
What happens after the election?
Whoever is elected on 4 July will have big decisions to make about how to improve cancer services in England. That’s why we’ll be working in coalition with over 60 cancer charities, as part of One Cancer Voice, to call on the next government to publish a long-term, fully-funded cancer strategy. Along with people affected by bowel cancer, we’ll also continue to push for improvements to bowel cancer screening to help diagnose people earlier and more investment in the staff and kit needed to diagnose the disease quickly.
Working together we can ensure more people with bowel cancer survive and thrive.
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