Hi Wolfhound. 

We've checked with the experts as this question has been raised by quite a few people and the the study only looked data from the NHS in England, as that’s the only UK data that they had access to at the time.

Best wishes, 
Jenn
Cancer Chat moderator

That's a very complicated question to answer. There are probably a number of factors at play.

I was lucky enough to be invited to the National Cancer Information Network Conference in Belfast earlier this Summer as a patient representative. There was a very interesting presentation on GP behaviour. GPs from several countries were given different scenarios to deal with and their responses varied significantly by country. For example the majority of GPs from continental Europe referred the same patients for endoscopic and other tests on their first visit to the GP. The majority of English NHS GPs waited until the third presentation. The conclusion was that this was because they were following NICE guidance on only referring when the probability of cancer was high due to lifestyle, age and other factors. So the younger and fitter you were, the less chance of being put on a cancer pathway because your chances of having cancer was below a threshold (from memory this was about 5% - which is one in twenty). There was a consensus in the audience that this needed to change and NICE was lobbied successfully to do exactly that a few weeks later. 

Max asked about private patients. This was raised from the floor at the conference on several occasions and the answer seemed to be that only NHS statistics were being collected - which may well skew the figures as many people go private to get access to diagnostic services more quickly.

Time and again at the conference we were presented with evidence that the UK has the second highest levels of obesity in the World, one of the highest levels of alcohol consumption in the World and a general lack of awareness about the symptoms of cancer. Not surprising that we have higher rates of cancer prevalence nor that we tend to visit our GPs later than most. Couple this with GPs generally referring people onto a cancer pathway later than their peers on the continnent and there's no surprise that we are lagging behind on survival rates.

Best wishes
Dave

Hi Kim,

Your observations are spot on. Another factor is that every year more and more people are being diagnosed with cancer, so demand is increasing but local NHS resources are (at best) frozen. In reality resources at local level are being reduced year on year by about 3% as the government continues to "uplift" local budgets by a negative percentage to enforce "efficiency savings" - something started by Labour pre-2010.

In theory this is a good thing as it encourages NHS organisations to do more for less. The savings should be being used as capital to fund new hospitals and other innovations at National and Regional level. In practice, there are always many millions of pounds clawed back by the Treasury as the NHS as a whole is unable to spend the capital allocation for a variety of reasons. Capital money used for new hospitals etc. used to come out of a different central budget. So when government ministers (of whichever party) say that NHS "budgets"  aren't or "spending on the NHS" isn't being cut they are sort of telling the truth but the money actually available and spent locally has been reducing year on year for about 7 years now.

Smoke and mirrors plays a huge part in politics.

Add to this poor workforce planning since 2010 - there is a National shortage of Radiologists and Radiographers as so many leave through retirement or for other reasons - and it is no wonder things are only slowly improving.

Sorry for the rant - I could have gone on for hours!
Dave

Another factor is the type of cancers that people are being diagnosed with, some are easier to treat etc.

I recently found out that my area has one of the highest rates of oral cancer in the whole of the UK.

I wonder if the UK has higher rates of certain cancers, which could explain why survival rates are different.

The comparisons are on a like for like basis - Lung Cancer, Breast Cancer etc.
In theory, if we have more experience of a particular cancer we should be getting better at treating it.

Nice photo by the way :-)

Dave

Thank you for posting that, it really does clarify why the NHS is struggling to care for their patients. There is nothing more important than a persons health, without good health you have nothing! It surpasses all the trinkets and toys that we are all persuaded will make us happy. A couple of pence on tax or VAT or NI contributions, earmarked exclusively for the NHS would make all the difference. Perhaps training our own nurses doctors radiologists here in the UK instead of poaching them from poorer countries who really can't afford to lose them after the expense of training. We have roughly 3 doctors per 1000 population whilst Tanzania has just 3 doctors per 100,000, the loss of a single doctor is huge for them.

We do have a choice how we spend our national income, a new car, kitchen, ipod or well funded health care, let your local MP know how you feel.

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your posts regarding this subject.

Best regards, Brian.