The UK languishes in 12th position in both the breast cancer and bowl cancer survival rates league tables, with a survival rate of 78.5% and 51.6% respectivley, both figures below the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development  (OECD) average survival rates.

This means that the UK have one of the worst cancer survival rates in the developed world. A shortage of cancer specialists and the lack of access to life-saving drugs is thought to be behind our poor showing.

Not only that but the UK appear as high as 4th in the league table looking at the percentage of people who die of heart attack related illness within 30 days of being admitted to hospital. The death rate of 6.3% is a higher rate of death than almost all developed countyries, only 4th due to the death rates in South Korea, Holland and Luxemborg. The figure is also over 2.5% higher than the OECD international average rate of death due to heart attacks.

These figures are published against the growing arguement to say that the UK National Health Service (NHS) hasn't improved duing the 12 years of Labour Government, despite £100 billion spent on the NHS each year.

Life expectancy in Britain - 79 years and six months for a man - is worse than in France, where men expect to live until 81. This deficit is also shown when looking at the mortality age of women in the UK compared to France.

On a more positive note the UK has more nurses than many countries. There are ten nurses for every 1,000 people here. That's higher than the OECD average of 9.6 and the French figure of 7.7.