Dr Neil Hudson, MP for Epping Forest, joined recently with Blood Cancer UK at the launch of their new landmark report which seeks to improve care for the disease.
The UK Blood Cancer Action Plan is a landmark policy report focused on improving survival from blood cancer in adults across the UK. Sadly, too many people across the UK are still dying from blood cancer and the UK is now falling behind similar countries when it comes to research, outcomes and survival.
As such, the Action Plan sets out the complex challenges that stand in the way of improvement and offers realistic but ambitious recommendations for all four UK Governments and the NHS.
Dr Hudson met with GPs, cancer specialists and Scott Nunn - who lives with Myeloma and acts as an ambassador for Blood Cancer UK - to hear about their experiences of the system and what more can be done to support those with blood cancer.
One particular theme was the need to bolster the Non-Specific Symptom Pathway for unsuspected cancers which supports those with symptoms that may indicate a chance of cancer but don't fit other criteria.
Not available across the entire UK, without this pathway patients can be bounced between primary and secondary care which delays diagnoses thus impacting the outcomes.
As such, Dr Hudson wrote to the Health Secretary to support this pathway and the Action Plan more broadly.
Dr Neil Hudson MP said:
"In the last decade, Blood Cancer UK estimate 1million+ potential years of life have been lost to blood cancer UK.
"As such, I thank Blood Cancer UK for their powerful report, and the challenge to Government, NHS and other agencies to take actions that will speed up diagnosis, deliver better care, improve access to clinical trials and treatment, and increase the workforce treating blood cancers.
"I have written to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to ask that the Government implements the Action Plan in order to improve survival rates for blood cancer patients."
