Cancer diagnoses and screening down as survival rates worsen

Responding to new figures which show there was an 8% fall in diagnosis for all cancer in 2020  and that survival estimates were generally lower for the cohort diagnosed with cancer in 2020 (e.g. one-year survival: 67.5% in 2020 vs 71.1% in 2018-19 for all cancers combined), Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

“As early as March 2020 I was warning that other health conditions would not stand still while we dealt with the Covid pandemic.

“Michael Matheson’s must take proactive steps to ensure that diagnosis rates rise again and waiting times come down.

“Early intervention in cancer cases is crucial to chances of survival and it is unacceptable that this Government is leaving people waiting.”

Commenting on new figures showing that the percentage of eligible women who were up-to-date with their cervical cancer screening participation was 68.7% in 2021/22, down 0.7 percentage points from the previous year, he added:

“The government decided to hide errors in the screening programme for months before the 2021 election. They put political victories front and centre, leaving hundreds of women in a state of anxiety and confusion.

“Now the government needs to do everything in its power to get screening rates up.”