BOWEL CANCER SCREENING

Motion Text

That this House notes the criticism made by Cancer Research UK of the Government's delay in establishing a new bowel cancer screening programme from April 2006 as promised in the Health White Paper Our Health, Our Care, Our Say: A New Direction for Cancer Services; further notes the comment made by the Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK Professor Alex Markham, `that to claim the programme is going ahead as planned is a distortion of the truth'; further notes the vital importance of an early diagnosis of bowel cancer and that in the screening pilot established in Rugby 217 people have been diagnosed with bowel cancer; and urges the Government to institute a bowel cancer screening programme without further delay as a first step towards enabling this country to catch up with best practice in North America and Western Europe.