Lord Freyberg – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Freyberg on 2015-11-30.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of (1) how much (a) England, (b) Scotland, (c) Wales, (d) Sweden, (e) the Netherlands, (f) France, (g) Denmark, (h) Belgium, and (i) Italy, spent per capita on cancer services, and (2) the national one-year cancer survival rates as a percentage of new patients for each of those countries, for the most recent year for which comparable data is available.

Lord Prior of Brampton

We are not aware of any comparable international data on per capita spending for cancer services. The National Audit Office estimated that the cost of cancer services to the National Health Service in 2012-13 was £6.7 billion, although precise figures are not available.

The Eurocare-5 study, published in 2014, compares cancer survival rates across Europe, and includes all patients diagnosed between 1999 and 2007. These are the most recent available comparable data for the countries requested. Therefore, these comparisons are not a measure of current NHS performance and practice, but should be regarded as a long-term benchmark.

Age-standardised, one-year, all-cancer survival rates for the requested countries are as follows:

Country Age-standardised rate, one-year all-cancer survival (95% Confidence Interval) for patients diagnosed between 1999 and 2007

England 67.6 (67.5-67.7)

Scotland 67.5 (67.3-67.7)

Wales 66.3 (66.0-66.6)

Sweden 75.1 (75.0-75.3)

Netherlands 71.9 (71.8-72.0)

France 75.1 (74.9-75.4)

Denmark 69.2 (69.0-69.4)

Belgium 76.4 (76.3-76.6)

Italy 75.2 (75.1-75.3)

Source: Baili, P., et al. (2015). "Age and case mix-standardised survival for all cancer patients in Europe 1999–2007: Results of EUROCARE-5, a population-based study." European Journal of Cancer 51(15): 2120-2129.