Government announces £200m for increased cancer screening in deprived areas
The Government will spend £200m over the next three years on boosting cancer screening uptake in deprived areas to tackle inequalities in mortality.
As part of the Neighbourhood Early Diagnosis Fund, schemes will target areas of the country where fewer people take part in testing.
Regional Cancer Alliances will be tasked with developing local campaigns and projects to reduce the gap in screening between the most and least deprived areas, the Government said.
It could include mobile screening services offering testing in community settings, such as supermarket car parks, as has already been done in some areas for lung health checks.
In Greater Manchester mobile lung cancer screening for people aged 55-74 who smoke or have a history of smoking has diagnosed 1,200 patients in the region with early-stage disease, the Government said.
The funding could also be used to expand a programme in Liverpool where a mobile breast screening unit has been travelling to areas with some of the lowest uptake rates in the country.
Between 2021 and 2023 rates of premature death due to cancer were more than two times higher in Blackpool (208 per 100,000 people) compared with Harrow (104 per 100,000 people).
Disparities get worse when taking into account ethnicity, being born in the UK, and socioeconomic status, the figures show.
Data published last year show 58.7% of cancers had been diagnosed at stage one or two – 2.7% percentage points higher than before the pandemic.
Lung health checks had been partly responsible for this improvement but there had also been an increase in the number of GP referrals through the urgent pathway.
Analysis done in November found barely any hospital trust was meeting NHS waiting time targets for cancer treatment.
Health and social care secretary, Wes Streeting, said: ‘Advances in medical science allow us to screen much more accurately for early signs of cancer. Bringing this to every part of our country will help catch cancer earlier and treat it faster.’
Dr Claire Fuller, national medical director at NHS England, said: ‘Screening is crucial in helping the NHS catch cancers earlier and boost people’s chance of survival, but it’s vital that it is as easy to get screened in the most deprived areas as is in the most affluent parts of England.’
‘Through the National Cancer Plan we will work closer with local communities to ensure that barriers to early diagnosis and screening opportunities are eradicated and help to make England a world-leader for cancer survival.’
The NHS Cancer Plan is expected to be published next week.
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