The Ulster Unionist Party has today launched the fourth in a series of detailed policy papers. The latest document focuses on the growing concern for cancer care across Northern Ireland.

Some of the key proposals in the paper include:

• Setting a target date of 2035 for Northern Ireland to be tobacco free with a recorded incidence of less than 5%;
• Introducing a dignity charter across each of the Health and Social Care Trusts so that patients are at the centre of their care and decision making process;
• Ensuring that every patient diagnosed with cancer has access to a Clinical Nurse Specialist;
• Improving GP access to diagnostics by giving them the power to refer directly for key diagnostic tests;
• Reducing the age for the bowel screening programme to those aged 55;
• Ensuring children and young people with a cancer diagnosis are able to access quality alternative provision to continue their education.

Ulster Unionist Party Leader, Mike Nesbitt MLA, said:

“Very few people across Northern Ireland have managed to escape being touched by cancer, be it personally or through witnessing the impact it has on a family member or friend. It is an intensely cruel and unforgiving disease and it is the number one cause of death with sadly up to 4,000 people here succumbing to the ravages of the disease every year.

“Yet the reality is more than one in three people in Northern Ireland will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives, and in only 5 years’ time that rate will have risen to almost one in two.

“The scale of the disease, and the even greater prominence it is going to display over the years to come means that cancer prevention, early detection and timely treatment must remain a top priority within the health agenda for Northern Ireland. In this document you will see how the Ulster Unionist Party proposes to contribute to that process.”

Ulster Unionist Party Health Spokesperson, Jo-Anne Dobson MLA, said:

“A cancer diagnosis not only shocks the patient but also their entire circle of family and friends. In recent weeks I lost one of my closest friends to the disease and it has unfortunately become one of the most significant health concerns we as a society are facing.

“Whilst the number of people being diagnosed with cancer here is growing year-on-year, we should take some comfort that rapid advances in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer means that more of us are beating the disease than ever before. It certainly is no longer the death sentence it once was and with every passing year our local research institutions are making ground-breaking innovations. 

“It is essential however that for those who are not fortunate enough to beat the disease that they are treated with the care and dignity to give them both comfort and peace in their final months. That is why I am particularly pleased that we have suggested a number of sensible proposals to improve end of life care here in Northern Ireland.”

A full copy of the paper can be downloaded here - http://uup.org/assets/images/cancer%20care%20report.pdf