Jim Shannon

I welcome the hon. Gentleman’s encouraging intervention. That is what it is all about. Of course, I attend my own party’s conference—I am not sure I would attend anyone else’s. Party conferences are a great opportunity to meet groups that are working hard, and they come to our conference too. That breath test is encouraging, and perhaps it will be part of the next stage of curing cancer, and particularly pancreatic cancer. The target of starting treatment within 62 days of an urgent GP referral is not being met, with only 37% of patients receiving treatment within the critical window—those figures are from 2023. As of September 2023, some 545,000 people in Northern Ireland, which has a population of 1.95 million, were waiting for elective care. My goodness, is that not a scary figure? That issue is not the Minister’s responsibility, but it worries me when I consider it. It is the highest number on record. Waiting times for in-patient admissions and out-patient appointments, including for cancer patients, have increased dramatically since 2020. There are shortages across multiple disciplines, including paediatricians, administrative support, pathologists, radiologists, chemotherapy nurses and palliative care staff. For example, while the number of clinical radiologists has increased, which is good news, the Royal College of Radiologists estimates that the workforce is still 50% smaller than is needed to meet demand. Yes, there have been advances, but we are not there quite yet. Current staff face extreme workload pressures, leading to a fear of missing early diagnoses, and also burnout for those whose commitment to help their patients is above and beyond what their wage packet might indicate. We are not coping well. A constituent came to my office to ask why her first smear test results took 16 weeks to come back, and why she had to ring her GP on three occasions to get them. On her behalf, I had to email the doctor’s surgery and the health trust so that the biopsies were taken. It is easy to understand why her anxiety levels were through the roof. She now has to wait a further six to eight weeks to see whether she needs treatment. My goodness, it is little wonder that people are so worried, anxious and stressed. The fact is that waiting times affect the mental health of even the young and the fit. If we are to give people the tools they need to win their health battle, as we need to, it begins with efficient diagnosis and treatment. We are not getting it right, and that is a fact. We can do better. Our constituents believe they are losing the battle before it truly begins, so what do we need to do? We need to bring our workforce up to par by ensuring that money in the NHS is spent appropriately and is not, to use an Ulster Scots word, frittered away. I make a plea to the Minister for more research. I really believe that what we spend on research will be for the future and finding all the cures. If we go back a few years, only one in three people survived cancer; now it is one in two. That is an advance, and perhaps the day is coming when everyone can be in that place. I think of Queen’s University Belfast as one example. Its partnerships with medical companies to find cures are incredible, and those that it has found through its research are some of the best in the United Kingdom, if not the world. To conclude, our NHS staff are second to none, but at times they seem to be working with one hand tied behind their backs, and that must cease. We must ensure we have sufficient funding to free them up to do the job and to fight cancer throughout this great United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland—always better together.