Hansard

As co-convener of the Parliament’s cross-party group on cancer, I congratulate Jackie Baillie on securing this evening’s debate, and for the work that she has done in Parliament during 20 years of campaigning on health issues.

I also thank those organisations that have provided us with useful briefings ahead of the debate. I specifically thank Cancer Research UK, which has supported the CPG for more than 20 years as our secretariat. As a member and co-convener of the CPG—I am sure that this is true of many of its members—I really enjoyed the work that we did during the previous parliamentary session.

One of my greatest concerns is the impact of the pandemic on cancer services. We have seen cuts to research projects and patient trials. We have also seen the huge amount of work that is going on across Scotland and the wider UK to support people living with cancer and their families being set back and undermined in many cases.

I do not think that we can overestimate the impact of the pandemic on cancer services and outcomes. We need to rededicate ourselves to turning that around, because, as has been mentioned, approximately 34,000 of our fellow Scots are diagnosed with cancer every year, and that number is expected to reach 40,000 by 2027.

It has been estimated that more than 650,000 patients in the UK have had treatment disrupted during the Covid pandemic. We know that the pandemic has had a profound impact on cancer services, including on early diagnosis of cancer in Scotland, with screening programmes paused and a fall in urgent referrals from GPs; on cancer prevention measures, with reduced service capacity and delays to planned legislation; on cancer treatment, with surgery delayed or cancelled, and staff shortages; and on the care of patients, with many experiencing poor mental wellbeing and limited provision of the holistic support services that we have all campaigned to see improved.

As Jackie Baillie has outlined, it is clear that staffing is a significant issue and one on which we must focus all our attention if we are to see a proper recovery. The Scottish Government must develop and resource such a plan early if we are to meet the targets now and in future. We should also focus on the design of new services.

We should all be seriously concerned that Cancer Research UK estimates that, as Jackie Baillie has said, survival rates might go backwards for the first time in decades if we do not take action to address backlogs and deliver the workforce that we need. It would be absolutely disastrous, were that to happen. I hope that we can all be united in dedicating ourselves to ensuring that it does not.

I have consistently raised my concerns about, for example, the breast screening programme in Scotland not being fully recovered, and I have spoken out about the fact that women over 70 still cannot self-refer into the breast cancer screening programme. I hope that the cabinet secretary can update us on that in closing the debate.

In my remaining time, I want to talk about the future, because I think that that is what we should all be looking towards. Jackie Baillie said that we should

“resolve not to go backwards.”

I absolutely agree, so I want to talk about a piece of work that many campaigners have been doing during the pandemic. A lot of people who work in the cancer community have not let the pandemic get in the way of what they want to do. One of my constituents, Jen Hardy, was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer in October 2017. Many members in the chamber will have met Jen, who has been campaigning for many years to improve opportunities for people. During the pandemic, she developed Cancer Card. I recommend that members visit www.cancercard.org.uk. Cancer Card has looked at how we change and provide the information that people need and are desperately looking for when they are diagnosed with cancer.

I hope that the Government will look at some of the work that has gone on during the pandemic, because there are a lot of positives to take from that.

On world cancer day, I hope that we can send out a message of hope and a call to action to the global cancer community to come together and for all of us once again to focus on working together to beat cancer.