Why we cannot let poor cancer care outcomes in places like South Yorkshire to go unchallenged - Oliver Coppard

He said that lives are being lost because the NHS is not fit for purpose: because of years of under investment leading to unacceptable waiting times, dilapidated buildings, and outdated technology.

This week, he has followed up on that report with another intervention, describing us as the sick man of Europe. But as bad as health outcomes are across our country, in South Yorkshire our health outcomes are markedly worse.

We live shorter lives. We live for longer in poor health. And a baby born in Rotherham today is likely to die five years younger than a baby born in a wealthy part of London. Within South Yorkshire, healthy life expectancy between richer and poorer neighbourhoods can differ by as much as 20 years.

And nowhere are those challenges greater than when it comes to cancer. In South Yorkshire, cancer is a significant cause of poor health and preventable, premature death.

We have one of the highest rates of cancer in England, particularly lung and bowel cancer. We have the highest number of premature deaths from cancer in the country. For many cancer types, South Yorkshire has the lowest proportion diagnosed at an early stage. All too often we only catch cancer at a point when treatments are harder and the outcomes are worse.

And statistically, all of those challenges are greater for people living in poorer neighbourhoods.

I refuse to let South Yorkshire’s disastrous health outcomes be considered normal, or to continue unchallenged. Like all too many families, my family have faced the terrifying wait for unexplained symptoms to become a diagnosis and then treatment. We were among the lucky ones, but there are people reading this who will have lost loved ones who would have had a different, happier outcome if they lived elsewhere.

That’s why I’ve made it my mission to turn those outcomes around.

Because the poor health that scars our region doesn’t just hold back our economy, it is simply not right that where you are born determines your health, or your chances of living a long and full life.

And while I’m under no illusions about the scale of the challenge in front of us, as Lord Darzi said, the situation is critical but not terminal.

Just like there is across the rest of the NHS, there is excellence and innovation in South Yorkshire. We have brilliant people working in our GP services, our hospitals and in public health teams across the region. Our doctors and nurses, our technicians and managers are dedicated, often world-class experts.

But the statistics tell a story, with a fundamental lesson at its heart; that we simply must do things differently if we want different outcomes, when it comes to cancer perhaps most of all.

That’s why, 18 months ago, I commissioned Professor Alan Walker – Professor of Social Policy and Social Gerontology and Co-Director of the Healthy Lifespan Institute at the University of Sheffield – to lead my Health Equity Advisory Panel; a group of experts tasked with diagnosing and responding to the challenges of health inequalities in South Yorkshire.

We’re working with the Sheffield Children’s Hospital, investing millions in a new, world’s first ‘Child Health Technology Centre’. I’m working with Barnsley Council to deliver nearly £70m in the next phase of their brilliant ‘Health on Your High Street’ programme, bringing mammogram screening and outpatient services into the heart of Barnsley town centre. And I’ve brought together experts from across the cancer sector to explore what a new approach could look like in South Yorkshire.

And that’s why I am now asking the leaders of the NHS in South Yorkshire, the Cancer Alliance and other parties that have the power to make a difference to think radically, and beyond the scope of the current institutional framework, to shift the dial here.

It’s why I’ve urged them to throw their full support behind proposals for a Collaborative Cancer Institute (CCI) for South Yorkshire, that brings together the expertise from across South Yorkshire, to transform cancer outcomes for South Yorkshire.

Working with experts and stakeholders in the region, we’ve undertaken a comprehensive review of the options for change. We’ve looked at the challenges as well as the opportunities. And the findings are that a CCI for South Yorkshire would not only achieve a step change in regional cancer outcomes, it would also deliver significant economic benefit through investment into the regional healthcare ecosystem.

The statistics that we are living with here in South Yorkshire are not inevitable or insurmountable. We can make things better, but we need to act boldly and decisively.

Oliver Coppard is the Mayor of South Yorkshire.