Lib Dems announce £1bn plan to improve radiotherapy cancer care and cut waiting times

EMBARGO: 22:30 Saturday 15th June

• Ed Davey announces major expansion of radiotherapy treatment by boosting the number of machines by 46%

• The plans for a £1bn injection into the radiotherapy budget comes amid a shortage of machines and qualified staff

• Millions of people live in “desert areas” with long drives to receive vital cancer treatment 

• Ed Davey talks of his personal experience of losing his mother and father to cancer as he calls for a cancer guarantee

The Liberal Democrats will today (Sunday 16th June) announce a plan to cut cancer waiting times with a major expansion of radiotherapy treatment, as part of their guarantee that patients who have been urgently referred can start cancer treatment within 62 days. 

Their bold plan would see the NHS in England become a world leader in the number of radiotherapy machines per person. 

The party has called for a £1bn boost for the radiotherapy budget over the next Parliament, which would fund 200 new radiotherapy machines across England, and the fully qualified NHS staff to run them. Their new funding would increase the number of machines by 46% overall by the end of the next Parliament. 

Ed Davey, who has spoken during the campaign about losing his mother and father from cancer, has previously announced a new legal guarantee to ensure every patient starts treatment for cancer within 62 days of an urgent referral. 

A boost to radiotherapy funding would slash waiting times to start treatment, cut the distances patients have to travel to for treatment and save the NHS money with radiotherapy being considerably cheaper than chemotherapy. 

There are radiotherapy "desert areas" in England, in which patients have to take long journeys to get to a centre with a machine. Currently, 3.5 million people live outside the government-recommended travel time of 45 minutes.

Delivering 200 radiotherapy machines would put the NHS in England amongst the top of the league tables of the number of machines per million people according to Radiotherapy UK, a leading charity.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said: 

“Like millions of people around the country, I know what it’s like to have your life turned upside down by cancer. Thankfully survival rates and treatments have improved since I lost both my parents to cancer growing up. But there is so much more we must do to improve cancer care and spare families the heartbreak of losing a loved one to this terrible disease.

“We must put an end to the tragedy of people losing their lives because cancer treatment took too long to start. Nobody should be unable to receive treatment because there isn’t enough equipment.

“Improving cancer care will be a top priority for Liberal Democrat MPs in the next Parliament. Our bold plan would see more investment in radiotherapy machines to improve survival rates and slash waiting times.”

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

The Liberal Democrat plan would cost £1bn and is part of the party’s £4bn plan for cancer over the next Parliament. Roughly half the £1bn will be spent over five years in capital expenditure on 200 new radiotherapy machines, the other half would be on staffing costs.

This is for England only as health is a devolved matter.

Increasing access to radiotherapy is key to improving survival rates for cancer. Radiotherapy is a treatment used to kill cancer cells through aiming high-energy radiation at the tumour. It does less damage to the healthy cells around the tumour and is useful for treating cancers in areas vulnerable to damage, allowing effective treatment of cancers that cannot be tackled with surgery or chemotherapy.