THE CANCER BILL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23702, 9 January 1939, Page 10

THE CANCER BILL

MR ELLIOT’S “ MESSAGE OF HOPE” " WHAT THE “WAR” WILL COST (From Our Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) ■ _ LONDON, Dec. 15. Noticing that the Minister of Health had his eyes shut while she was speaking during the second reading of the Cancer Bill, Dr Edith Summerskill (Lab., Fulham) complained that he was asleep. Mr Elliot jumped up at once to retort that he had heard every word of her speech and did not agree with one word of it. The annual number of deaths from this disease had been steadily rising, and the total for Great Britain in 1937 was 74,000, said the Minister of Health. Careful records made by surgeons of the histories of patients on whom they operated had shown that patients with cancer could be freed from their disease, A message which could be brought to-day, carefully and cautiously, was one of hope. The annua! death-rate had risen from 835 per 1,000,000 in 1901 to 1600 per 1,000,000. “More than ,6000 persons , have died of this disease since the ; King’s Speech on November 9,” he said. Cancer was not merely a disease of civilisation. Much of the increase was explicable in increased longevity and more accurate diagnosis. Certain forms of the disease were disappearing altogether. From Ministry inquiries it was estimated that there were over 100,000 persons in the United Kingdom suffering from cancer in 1937.

“Delay Is Deadly"

Only about a-quarter of the patients who could be treated with advantage obtained it at centres which were adequately staffed and equipped. “Those who have worked at many of our hospitals nave had burred into | their minds the long waiting lists,” said Mr Elliot.. “Not all the remaining patients are susceptible to treatment, but more might become so if facilities were improved.” Many cancer patients applied for treatment only when treatment was no longer possible. “For many diseases delay in seeking medical advice is dangerous: for cancer, it is deadly. This bogey of incurability is one of the thipgs that the Bill is designed to combat and dispel,” he said. The belief in the last century that consumption was mortal had been overcome. Could not history be repeated in respect of cancer? It was proposed to attempt to secure that no one, wherever he was domiciled, who was suffering, or suspected to be suffering, from cancer would be without easy reach of the best available advice. The Bill provided for the organisation by county and county borough councils throughout the country of arrangements for diagnosis and treatment. £350,000 Annual Grants

It was estimated that the Exchequer contribution when the service was in full operation—which would probably be some five years hence—would be £300,000 per annum for England and Wales, and £50,000 for Scotland. Reasonably to meet immediate future needs, there would be required 12 new treatment centres, 1000 additional beds and 300 to 350 consultation centre* for diagnostic and other purposes., In the provision of radium it: was proposed to work through the National Radium Trust and the Radlunv Commission. The trust. owned about 20 grammes of radium, bought partly by public subscription and partly out of an Exchequer grant of £IOO,OOO. In addition, it had 18 grammes on loan, with an option to purchase: at £4500 a gramme, including containers

Radium Purchase Option

The trust had secured an. option to buy a further 10 grammes a year for the next five years at £4500 a gramme, exclusive of containers. The trust, however, was not pledged to buy more than two grammes a year—lo grammes in all—so that the new actual commitment amounted to not more than about £50,000. and the trust had an option which, if they exercised it. would involve an expenditure of another £200,000. Mr Herbert Morrison argued that there should be a minimum 50 per cent. Excheqeur grant for every locality.'. Mr Douglas Cooke, speaking from his own medical experience, pronounced that Mr Elliot was right to insist that the Bill was not a radium Bill. Sir E. Graham Little declared that radium was rather a receding than an advancing force. „ ■ ■ .

Mr Bernays, Secretary to the Ministry of Health, explained that special provision for radium was made ip. the Bill because radium was the one element in cancer treatment the supply of which was not equal to the demand. Too Long from the Consulting Room

Dr Edith Summerskill said the Bill did nothing to meet the problem she sees in her consuming room—the problem of the poor housewife who is so unselfish that she spends allXshe has on her family and puts off a visit to the doctor until it is too late. The real problem was not so much to get poor people referred by the doctor to the treatment centre as to get them to visit the doctor whenever they suspected trouble.

She exclaimed suddenly: “But I see the Minister of Health has gone to sleep. If he agrees with nothing that I say. then he does not understand the problem. He may have medical qualifications (Mr Elliot is a fully qualified medical man), but he has been such a long time away from the consulting room that perhaps he does not believe that the poor are unwilling to go to it."

She said that In the industrial districts the smallest medical fee is too high. ' She advocated State medical service, to be given free as the free education service. The Bill was read a second time. .