The health secretary has pledged to end postcode prescribing in NHS cancer care.

John Reid acted on Tuesday after recent reports revealed wide variations in their regional availability.

Paul Burstow, health spokesman, said: "The government's piecemeal approach to target setting has failed to improve cancer survival rates across the board. There are still too many people being left behind when it comes to timely treatment of cancer.

"The government still has a long way to go to close the health divide in this country. The fact that unskilled workers are far more likely to die of cancer than their professional counterparts is a measure of that divide.

"While there has been some welcome progress the challenge is still to build a public health service capable of leading a revolution in healthcare that tackles the causes of ill health and not just its consequences.

"Patients deserve the best care available. Out of date equipment threatens to undermine the quality of care given by doctors and nurses. Creaking scanners must not be allowed to put patient health at risk."

Liam Fox, shadow health secretary, said: "We naturally welcome the progress that has been made in improving the standard of cancer care to which Joanne Rule referred.

"However, serious problems remain, and responsibility for many of these rest with ministers.

"Most shockingly, average waiting times for cancer patients have risen significantly. Waiting times for treatment of common cancers such as prostate cancer, lung cancer and skin cancer have all lengthened since 1999. The time patients have to wait for treatment for brain cancer has risen by 66 per cent since 1999."John Reid clearly fails to understand the problems that his two week pledge has caused. The Government's insistence that this pledge is honoured has resulted in patients with cancer having to wait longer for treatment.

"Time and again, cancer charities and organisations have pointed out that money ear marked for cancer treatment simply isn't reaching the front line. An audit carried out in November 2002 found that over 80 per cent of cancer networks do not expect to receive their promised allocation of funds in 2003/04.

"The best thing that ministers can do for cancer patients would be to allow health professionals to get on with what they were trained to do, rather than constantly interfering. Sadly, as John Reid and his colleagues showed again in the Commons yesterday, they know only centralisation and Ministerial micromanagement of the system."

Forum Response: The Prostate Cancer Charity

Dr Chris Hiley, head of policy and research at the Prostate Cancer Charity, told ePolitix.com: "Of course we welcome anything that might end postcode lottery of funding for cancer drugs.

"People with cancer don't like it; cancer charities don't like it; professionals who deliver health services don't like it; but somehow we've been expected to live with it.

"For how much longer, we wonder?

"The postcode code lottery of care and treatment is hardly a new problem.

"I quote from the NICE website - the secretary of state's speech launching the National Institute of Clinical Excellence: 'Internal markets and post codes were never an acceptable way to run a health service' (31 March 1999).

"Not then. Not now. Four and a half years later, the government is gearing up for action. We look forward to their solutions. They've had a long while to consider them."

Forum Response: Sargent Cancer Care for Children

Siun Cranny, chief executive, told ePolitix.com: "No child or young person should be deprived of care because of where they live.

"Sargent supports the UKCSG protocols for the treatment of children with cancer but recognises that young people treated in district hospitals can be subject to different treatment regimes.

"Sargent welcomes the proposed review by Mike Richards. We recognise that changes in drug treatment regimes can put pressure on NHS trust budgets in both adults' and children's cancer services.

"We would welcome the move proposed by the department of health to 'program' funding encouraging the trusts and clinicians to look at ways of ensuring that the most effective treatments are available once recommended by NICE."