An initiative to improve the early detection of cancer among Scots, intended to save 300 lives a year, was announced yesterday by Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish Health and Wellbeing Secretary.
The Detect Cancer Early project will cost £30 million and be aimed at Scotland’s three big killers: lung, breast and colon cancer.
Ms Sturgeon made the announcement at the SNP’s pre-election conference in Glasgow as the pace of the campaign leading to the Holyrood vote on May 5 began to quicken.
She told delegates that Scotland lagged behind other European countries in cancer survival rates because too many sufferers were in the advanced stages of the disease before they saw a doctor. The initiative aimed to increase the number of Scottish cancer patients diagnosed in the first stages by 25 per cent.
Ms Sturgeon’s pledge was the latest in a weekend of hectic activity by Scotland’s political parties. On Saturday, Alex Salmond, the SNP leader and First Minister, said that, if re-elected, his party would rule out tuition fees or a graduate contribution for Scottish students.
Advertisement
On the same day, Iain Gray, the Scottish Labour leader, announced that if Labour won power it would match the SNP’s commitment for a two-year council tax freeze. This means that Labour has formally abandoned reforming council tax by raising the number of bands, despite setting up a working party three years ago to look at the issue.
In her speech yesterday, Ms Sturgeon also committed a re-elected SNP to introduce minimum alcohol pricing. The minority Nationalist administration’s previous attempt was defeated last year after the three main opposition parties rejected the plan. Ms Sturgeon described that rejection as “disgraceful” and singled out Labour for particular criticism.
“Time and time again, it is Labour’s fitness to govern that has been called into question,” she told the conference. “Nothing demonstrated that more than its conduct over minimum pricing for alcohol. We won the backing of doctors, nurses, the police, children’s charities, churches, publicans — all of those who work on the front line and see daily the damage cheap booze is doing to our country.
“But Labour, even though it knew it was the right thing to do, voted it down. Labour put party politics before the public health of our country and it should be ashamed of itself.”
Labour hit back by claiming that Ms Sturgeon had lost the argument in the Scottish Parliament. Jackie Baillie, Labour’s Shadow Health minister, said that her party did support a ban on discounting, which was a credible measure that the Scottish government’s own study concluded would have as much impact on problem drinking as minimum pricing.
Advertisement
Meanwhile, a new opinion poll put Labour in the lead. According to a Progressive Scottish Opinion poll of 1,000 Scots conducted in the first week of this month, Labour was backed by 43 per cent of voters in the constituency section of the election. The SNP was on 37 per cent, the Tories on 11 per cent, the Lib Dems 5 per cent, Scottish Socialist 2 per cent and the Greens on 1 per cent.
In the regional or list section of the election, Labour polled 44 per cent, with the SNP on 37 per cent, Conservatives 11 per cent, Lib Dems 4 per cent, Green Party 2 per cent and the Scottish Socialists 1 per cent.
If repeated on May 5, it would mean that Labour would win 63 seats, up by 17. The SNP would have 49 seats, an increase of two. The Lib Dems would suffer large losses, down from 16 MSPs to five. The Tories would lose five seats, leaving them with 12 MSPs.