Labour target cancer sufferers in new ad

Kohoutek

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7094308.ece

Labour has become embroiled in a row about the use of personal data after sending cancer patients alarmist mailshots saying their lives could be at risk under a Conservative government.

Cards addressed to sufferers by name warn that a Labour guarantee to see a cancer specialist within two weeks would be scrapped by the Tories. Labour claims the Conservatives would also do away with the right to be treated within 18 weeks.

Cancer patients who received the personalised cards, sent with a message from a breast cancer survivor praising her treatment under Labour, said they were “disgusted and shocked”, and feared that the party may have had access to confidential health data.

Labour sources deny that the party has used any confidential information....

However,

In the Labour constituency of Sherwood, Nottinghamshire, two of a group of eight women friends received the breast cancer card. They are the only two to have undergone cancer treatment.

In the marginal east London constituency of Poplar and Limehouse, the card was sent to a 44-year-old television producer who had a potentially cancerous lump that turned out to be a cyst. She appeared to be the only person who received the mailshot among 50 neighbours.

From the comments:

"I also received not one but TWO of these cards recently. I was not so fortunate as the woman in the case described – diagnosed in two weeks and back at work in three. I have ovarian cancer"

"I received a Cancer Card, from the Sherwood labour candidate.I thought it shocking but wondered if it had just been an unfortunate coincidence, having read the article I now see it was not.. I have had three rounds of breast surgery in the past 2 years"

vivatifosi

Thanks Kohoutek. This morning Labour has gone one step further. They are announcing speeding up how quickly patients can get diagnosis.

I don't see how they can do this. When I went through cancer treatment it took a year to get results. Not because the NHS was being inefficient, not because they didn't care or because I had bad consultants, but because they were doing everything they could with a rare type of tumour to get the diagnosis right. In order to do this, first the local doctors convened, then those in the region, then the best in the country and when they couldn't work out what it was, they called on the best experts from round the world.

My concern is that this meaningless quest for targets and political point scoring not only gives some patients hope which will then be dashed, it may cause hospitals to rush into decisions on diagnosis because they have to meet targets, ultimately leading at times to the wrong treatment.

I can't begin to say how angry this makes me.

ninky_2

a bit of a biased report by the times. the leaflets went to 250, 000 women. not all had cancer. survival rates for these cancers have certainly improved under labour and despite what the tories say we all know they'd like to make cuts to the nhs. i don't think it is unreasonable to highlight that. i don't think it's any different to publicising the terrible voting record of the typical conservative in the gay community. or highlighting tory attitudes to immigration in the immigrant community.

abaxas

ninky wrote: »

survival rates for these cancers have certainly improved under labour and despite what the tories say we all know they'd like to make cuts to the nhs.

Spin spin spin spin

1) Survival rates may have increased, but that has nothing to do with labour.
2) Spending more on a service does not make it better. Spending less does not make it worse.

Please return your tongue to Gordon Browns bottom.

ninky_2

abaxas wrote: »

Spin spin spin spin

1) Survival rates may have increased, but that has nothing to do with labour.
2) Spending more on a service does not make it better. Spending less does not make it worse.

Please return your tongue to Gordon Browns bottom.

spending less on a service does not make it better. spending more on a service does not make it worse.

funny thought how spending more on the nhs under labour has undoubtedly improved it.

and funny how when it comes to defense the tories don't waffle on about making 'efficiency' cuts in the same way.

is your tongue in camerons bottom then? can't imagine the taste is much different. or does he douche?

Kohoutek

ninky wrote: »

a bit of a biased report by the times. the leaflets went to 250, 000 women. not all had cancer.

But you do think it's morally right for a political party to aim promotional material at cancer victims? Even if it didn't all go to cancer sufferers, it seems pretty clear they were aiming the leaflets at postcodes collected on databases where cancer sufferers were likely to live. I think most people, even Labour zealots would admit this a very unpleasant method to campaign in a election.

Labour sources deny that the party has used any confidential information. However, the sources admit that, in line with other political parties, it uses socio-demographic research that is commercially and publicly available.

Experian, the data management company, confirmed that both Labour and the Conservatives use its Mosaic database, which divides voters into 67 groups. The databases can use anonymised hospital statistics, including postcodes and the diagnoses of patients, to identify the likely addresses of those with particular illnesses.

The cards are being distributed by Ravensworth, part of Tangent Communications, which has won accounts sending out mail for the Department of Health and Cancer Research UK.

Tangent claims that it specialises in “highly targeted marketing”.

tomterm8

Kohoutek wrote: »

But you do think it's morally right for a political party to aim promotional material at cancer victims? .

Well, it makes a lot of sence targeting adverts to people who will be affected by the issue. The Torys are actually better at it than labour... As long as labour got the information from legal sources, I don't see where the problem is?

Really2

ninky wrote: »

a bit of a biased report by the times. the leaflets went to 250, 000 women. not all had cancer.

Why would they select just 250,000 women though? They may not all have cancer but it is a very small number to target if they did not have some information on the health of the people they were sending it to.

Wookster

This is fear mongering. However low you thought they could go, Labour go lower.

Graham_Devon

ninky wrote: »

a bit of a biased report by the times. the leaflets went to 250, 000 women. not all had cancer. survival rates for these cancers have certainly improved under labour and despite what the tories say we all know they'd like to make cuts to the nhs. i don't think it is unreasonable to highlight that. i don't think it's any different to publicising the terrible voting record of the typical conservative in the gay community. or highlighting tory attitudes to immigration in the immigrant community.

It's not a biased report.

Labour have gone down the route of scare tactics. There is a data protection issue here maybe also.

But the worst part is that they have also, whether accidental or not, targetted these scare tactics at those suffering, or having suffered in the past with cancer.

Terrible situation, and I hope it's accidental, or an oversight. However, as it only went to 250,000 people, there must have been some sort of targetted selection process.

Kohoutek

tomterm8 wrote: »

Well, it makes a lot of sence targeting adverts to people who will be affected by the issue. The Torys are actually better at it than labour... As long as labour got the information from legal sources, I don't see where the problem is?

Maybe because a normal person would recognise that it's highly insensitive to target someone likely to be suffering from or had suffered from cancer using a database, and draw attention to their suffering in order to make a cheap political point? It's not clear that the point Labour were trying to get across was even true.

How would you feel if you had a close relative killed in Iraq, and the Liberal Democrat party sent you and other relatives of dead soldiers a leaflet pointing out they didn't support the war in Iraq? Would that be a justified invasion of privacy to make a cheap political point?