Labour to use private healthcare firms to help tackle NHS cancer backlog and save lives

Labour will use private healthcare firms to diagnose cancer faster and save lives, Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting has pledged.

The NHS will also deliver thousands of extra tests and scans by working over evenings and weekends, he said.

Mr Streeting was diagnosed with cancer himself in 2021 but made a full recovery within months after the disease was caught early.

He said: “Having gone through treatment for kidney cancer, I know that the earlier cancer is caught, the better chance of survival. Since the Conservatives took office in 2010, hundreds of thousands of patients have waited too long for tests, scans, and treatment.”

The NHS has a target of ensuring cancer patients are treated within two months of an urgent referral but last year the deadline was missed for 102,000 patients, more than one in three. Labour says it will ensure the target is met for every patient by the end of a first term in government.

Last week music teacher Nathaniel Dye, aged 38, spoke about his terminal cancer diagnosis at the Manchester launch of Labour’s manifesto. He said that he was forced to wait 100 days for treatment after being diagnosed and believes the disease might have been stopped without the delay.

Labour’s cancer plan also includes continuing with the total ban on smoking planned by Rishi Sunak’s government. This will make it an offence for anyone born on or before January 1 2009 to be sold tobacco products.