UPDATE - Issue 08 - July 2001
Will targets be met?
One of the key planks in the present Government's election manifesto related to improvements in the National Health Service. The electorate wants things to get better and so do we. If the Labour party fails to deliver on its promises, its re-election prospects could be slim. But how will we truly know that matters have improved when so much of what we read is passed through the hands of clever 'spin doctors'?
We must see quantifiable, measurable results. Fortunately, the Department of Health agrees with this view and has already established many targets that it hopes to achieve in the next four years or so. Obviously, as a special interest group the Prostate Research Campaign UK would like to see even more but as a start let us examine what improvements have occurred recently and what is being promised.
Research funding
The Department of Health has acknowledged that there is a serious shortfall in prostate cancer research funding relative to the scale of the problem and how little we know about the disease. It, therefore, decided to progressively increase the resources devoted to prostate cancer. This should result in the direct expenditure on research rising at a rate of £1 million each year to £4.2 million in 2003-04. Last years expenditure of £1.2 million was still substantially less than the £9 million spent on breast cancer, but the relative position is a great deal better than the 88 to 1 ratio we reported on three years ago.
Waiting times
Alan Milburn, the Health Minister's great new idea is to focus on waiting times rather than waiting lists. Last year a two-week waiting time standard was set for patients referred urgently by their general practitioners with suspected cancers of any sort. That was, of course, good news. The bad news is that this standard is not currently being reached in the case of prostate cancer, where a fifteen week wait appears to be the current norm.
Another new waiting time standard is that from urgent general practitioner referral to the start of treatment. The declared aim, part of the National Cancer Programme, is to get this down to two months by 2005. Linked to this is the introduction of booked admissions for cancer patients by 2004. All good news, if achieved.
Meeting these targets is the very least that the Prostate Research Campaign UK expects to see in the life of this Parliament.