Doctors given help to spot signs of cancer quicker

NHS DELAYS in diagnosing and treating cancer are costing up to 10,000 lives a year, experts have warned.

For the first time, GPs will be issued with checklists of symptoms to help them spot the disease, in an attempt to prevent at least half of the needless deaths.

Doctors will be told to fast-track patients with signs such as tiredness or unexplained bruises for urgent tests within 48 hours.

The new advice from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) comes amid concern that Britain has one of the lowest cancer survival rates in Western Europe.

Nice said too many GPs were “guessing” whether symptoms could mean cancer, with late diagnosis

rape. Our neighbours who live in those parts of our cities scarred by drug abuse, gangs and people trafficking.

“These are the people who suffer twice – at the hands of criminals and as a result of our current criminal justice sys- tem.” Mr Gove will acknowledge that the Lord Chief Justice and other senior judges have made the case for “quite radical change”.

The Justice Secretary will back proposals published in January by Sir Brian Leveson, the President of the Queen’s Bench Division, on court reform and say the recommendations must be implemented “with all speed”.

Mr Gove is also expected to give unequivocal backing to the rule of law as “the most precious asset of any civilised society”. Apart from court reform, his brief includes seeing though the abolition of Labour’s Human Rights Act and replacing it with a British Bill of Rights.

The Justice Secretary will say that the rule of law is vital to “protect the weak from the assault of the strong”.