Former health secretary Andrew Lansley has revealed he is being treated for bowel cancer.
But he said that cuts “wrongly” imposed by the Treasury had frustrated the delivery of a screening programme he introduced in 2010 which could have ensured he was diagnosed earlier.
The Conservative peer said doctors have told him he has “every reason to hope” his cancer can be effectively treated, keeping him alive for the long term.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, he called for action from the Government to ensure that future sufferers do not have to rely on “luck” for the early diagnosis which is crucial to their survival.
Lord Lansley, 61, made an announcement shortly after being made health secretary in 2010 of a new “bowelscope” test for to detect signs of cancer at age 55.
He said the scheme was intended to be rolled out across England by the end of 2016, but fell foul of cuts to Health Education England (HEE) imposed by the Treasury in 2014.
“The bowelscope is only available to about 50% of the population,” wrote Lord Lansley. “A lack of endoscopists and difficulties with IT have frustrated delivery.
“Bowelscope could save 3,000 lives a year, but training and recruiting endoscopists and support staff will take years.
“Health Education England is getting more resources for training more NHS staff, reversing the Treasury-imposed cut to the HEE budget in 2014 – when it was treated, wrongly, as a budget not within the NHS ‘ring-fence’.”
Mr Lansley said that he was “lucky” that his cancer was spotted nine months ago, when spreading back pain and “nagging” from his wife persuaded him to see his GP.
The diagnosis was stage three tumours which had not spread to his liver, giving him “every reason to hope to be among the more than half of cancer patients who can look forward to long-term survival”, he said.
But he said that if the bowelscope scheme had gone ahead as planned, he would have automatically been called in for screening.
And he added: “I want to know that for others like me in future, with better knowledge about symptoms, with earlier improved screening in place, and with a new focus on personalised preventative medicine, it really isn’t about luck.”
Lord Lansley welcomed the Government’s commitment to a new screening test called Fit, which he said has the potential to detect more cancers while requiring fewer endoscopies than bowelscope.
“Switching the screening programme over to using Fit should now be an immediate focus, with a roll-out this year and the development of a plan for optimising its use in future as further workforce capacity becomes available,” he said.
This should involve cutting the age for screening to 50 and putting in upfront investment in pathology and endoscopy, but should lead to long-term savings as more patients are diagnosed early, preventing expensive later-stage treatment.
“Bowel cancer is the second most common cause of cancer deaths in this country. It should be so much less,” said Lord Lansley.
“These priorities for progress can make a real difference. By prevention and early diagnosis, we can save lives and money.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here