Macmillan Cancer Support comments on the Cancer Reform Strategy: One Year On report

Commenting on the Cancer Reform Strategy: One Year On Report, Ciaran Devane, chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support said:

"We warmly welcomed the Cancer Reform Strategy when it was launched a year ago, because it has the potential to transform the quality of services for the two million people living with cancer. National initiatives, such as those tackling survivorship and early detection are going well, however good local implementation by the NHS will ultimately determine the success of the CRS, and so far progress on the ground has been slower than we had hoped.

"We do remain confident though that the strategy will be fully implemented by 2012 as long as it is given higher priority by the Government and NHS locally.

"The CRS was launched with the pledge that the patient would be put at the heart of the new cancer strategy. Yet little progress has been made by the Cancer Patient Experience Survey Programme in the first year despite it being one of the main ways that patients can influence the quality of the services they receive."

Find out more about the two million people living with or beyond cancer in the UK.