Huge benefits of care closer to our homes

Last week I met Lloyds Clinical Homecare at their mobile health centre in Broadbridge Heath. The scheme is delivered for the NHS and allows Royal Surrey Hospital (RSH) patients to receive anticancer treatments, such as chemotherapy, closer to home.

This decreases journey times for patients and also frees up the facilities at Guildford allowing for more effective utilisation and getting more patients treated (especially the more complex cases).

While it seems extraordinary that such vital medicine can be provided in a mobile facility – it can be and it is – and in doing so allows patients to be treated more locally to their home not just in Horsham but elsewhere in the RSH area.

There are huge benefits to patient wellbeing by having the right treatment as local as possible. It raises an interesting question as to whether other local health trusts – including East Surrey – could pool resources for having a joint centre for such treatments based for example out of Horsham Hospital. This may well be a win-win and it is question I am pursuing.

A Cancer Research UK study recently published in the BMJ found that fewer 35 to 69-year-olds are dying from cancer thanks to improved detection, better treatment and policies aimed at cutting smoking.

I supported the Tobacco and Vapes Bill in parliament last week: while I am always cautious about ‘bans’ and didn’t support it lightly I do recognise the lives that will be saved as a result of this measure and its importance.

Smoking currently causes around 80,000 deaths every year – one in four cancer deaths – and is responsible for 75,000 GP appointments every month.

The Bill will allow us to create the first ‘smokefree generation’, crack down on the rise of youth vaping, reduce pressure on the NHS and save hundreds of thousands of lives.

I am so pleased to also be supporting the Lobular Moon Shot Project campaign which is spearheaded by local campaigner Dr Susan Michaelis.

Work continues on our campaign for improved understanding and treatment of lobular breast cancer.

My parliamentary colleague Dehenna Davison and I are meeting the Institute for Cancer Research later this week.