Ringfenced radiotherapy funding

That this House is deeply concerned by the scale and severity of the covid-19 induced cancer backlog; notes Macmillan’s estimate that it will take the NHS 18 months, working at 110 per cent capacity, to clear the cancer backlog; recognises that the UK has one of the lowest cancer survivability rates in international league tables; further recognises that radiotherapy is a covid-19 safe and economical cancer treatment, costing between £4,000 and £7,000 per patient; further notes the UK’s historic underfunding of radiotherapy technologies and the woeful 27 per cent treatment rate for UK patients, in comparison to the international standard of 60 per cent; calls on the Government to support the recommendations of the APPG for Radiotherapy’s 2021 Manifesto Update; and and urges that £865 million of the new multi-billion-pound NHS funding package is ringfenced for investments which improve radiotherapy services.