The prime minister and health secretary have criticised the NHS on cancer, but new figures suggest the service is a world leaderDavid Cameron and Andrew Lansley's repeated criticisms of the NHS's record on cancer have been contradicted by new research that shows the health service to be an international leader in tackling the disease.
The findings challenge the government's claims that NHS failings on cancer contribute to 5,000-10,000 unnecessary cancer deaths a year, which ministers have used as a key reason for pushing through their radical shakeup of the service.
In fact, the NHS in England and Wales has helped achieve the biggest drop in cancer deaths and displayed the most efficient use of resources among 10 leading countries worldwide, according to the study published in the British Journal of Cancer.
"These results challenge the feeble justification of the government's changes, which appear to be based upon overhyped media representation, rather than hard comparable evidence. This paper should be a real boost to cancer patients and their families because the NHS's performance on cancer is much better than the media presents. It challenges the government's assertion that the NHS is inefficient and ineffective at treating cancer – an argument for reforming the NHS," said Prof Colin Pritchard, a health academic at Bournemouth University.
He co-wrote the research with Dr Tamas Hickish, a consultant medical oncologist at Poole and Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch hospitals in Dorset.
The research shows that ministers have misrepresented the NHS's record on cancer in order to gain support for their unpopular shakeup, said Pritchard.
Read more in todays Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/nov/07/nhs-cancer-figures-cameron-lansley