There is not "a" cure for cancer, there are many different cancers and reasons for them and many already have been cured or are treatable.
Basically so many other diseases are cured/treated now and people living longer, and the longer you live the more chance there is that you'll get cancer as there is an accumulation of mutations etc.

The biggest problem if cancer was somehow cured tommorow wouldn't be pharma companies, it would be disasterous if people were living many more decades with a miserable quality of life needing their arses wiped and spoon fed until something else got them, society would become top heavy and pension funds would be folding right left and centre.

God I hope euthenasia's legal when I need it.

me too PoP. I'm into my 70s with another milestone approaching and dread the time arriving when I become dependent on others for the most basic of things. Better to die before then, but not before teatime.

By the way- all those in favour of euthanasia, make sure you have an Advance Directive (the new name for a Living Will)!

Don't think any of us want to end up in a 'death' home they're everywhwere I pass at least 1 wherever and whenever I go more than 1/2 mile from my house.
There's a few with very nice views to me that doesn't quite offset the impending misery and suffering.

There's plenty of druggies on the streets dealing and using synthetic drugs like Fentanyl (many times stronger than Morphine) could be prosperous times for such low lives.

Shocking isn't it, MPs on their salaries and pensions can afford to toddle off to Switzerland and be put to sleep as they slip into their dotage.
While the people who paid their salaries and pensions can't afford that, they have to carry on in agony until they peg out through ill health.

Class distinction at its worst.

often it is left to the patient to set the limit, to ask if the pain intensifies  and the level of morphine is adjusted

Perhaps I overdid the hyperbole there lfc.

Once they take the drip out you become dehydrated and suffer malnutrition. Morphine ensures you don't linger too long. However in the recent discussion in the press, there have been cases of family members stating morphine was either not given at all or given in insufficient quantities after the drip was removed so there are cases of people dying in agony. Outrageous in this day and age. Nurses and doctors being too busy is not an excuse to behave inhumanely!

Like you, I can tell a few stories. But it is SOME staff. In 2016 I saw some very dedicated care by some NHS nurses who went out of their way for their patients. The best one was Portuguese. At the same time I saw a doctor who only cared about teaching the junior doctors and students who worshipped him. He couldn't give a t0ss about the patients, delaying giving drugs and sitting by his computer while his patients needed him! Unfortunately the majority are not good enough. Either they never cared or they had their care knocked out of them by the system. On that note, have a good evening and good luck. ps- may I remind you that next time you win loadsamoney, take out private insurance if you don't already have it!

Another - and very real reason it's in trouble is computers.
Nurses, Doctors and all other staff always have their heads buried in a screen instead of looking at patients.
Incidentally, Nurses are not trained the way they used to be and the duty of care is no longer paramount.

BILLIONS of £s wasted on computerising everything over the years and it has slowed everything down and increased the workload.

It isn't possible to find out how many A&E departments actually exist in the UK. I've tried to find out.
Based on all other figures I'd reckon there are about 75 or 80% fewer than 40 years ago, even though those that do exist are big.
Most walk in centres are now closed down.
There are planned closures to 24 (apparently 15%) of the A&E departments which are left.

No wonder they're overcrowded.

agree with studyforms post

Someone close to me was a (very highly qualified) nurse. We have witnessed the changes first hand at a number of hospital in different parts of the country.
Some disturbing working practices, a disregard for patients, because of an apparent need to stay on top of data input and waiting for screens to load and update.

I wish P or P, there was data, it wouldn't be hard to find then!

I even saw online a question asked (how many A&E departments are there in England and Wales) through the freedom of information act. The, eventual, answer was a list of all the Trusts in the UK and a letter telling the enquirer the answer was in the Public domain.

I'm sure most people can remember more hospitals than there are now, certainly I can name far more that are closed down than are open. I can also remember each of them having an A&E department. When some of these started to close local "Walk-in centres" were opened. Most of these are now closed.
The data is, imo, deliberately hard to find.

As for slower than before, centralised appointments is a very time consuming way of dealing with arranging them. Particularly for people who leave a clinic and need to go to one of loads of reception desks in an average huge hospital to get their next appointment. It used to be like the dentist. Look through a book for a space!
Ambulances are slower because they too are centralised and there are fewer of them, on top of which they get to spend hours outside hospitals because they can't unload, because of the lack of beds to unload into.

More work is caused too through the fast turnaround of patients, as an example; about 18 months ago I had an operation, a 2 1/2 hour one, so not quick, for something which until a few years ago would have meant a week in hospital. 
I had to go in at 7.30 - so left home at about 7am, got prepped, sorted, operated on, bandaged, woken and was home again by 5.30pm.

Needless to say, a few days some infections and pain got into the incision sites and I had to go to the GP and get antibiotics, which I wasn't really fit to do.
The hospital abnegated itself of my care within hours.
I've spoken to loads of people who had bad after effects of operations and similar stories to mine. Because the duty of care is no pretty much gone.

NHS is Feckered.

Yes Terry and it's been happening on a continuing basis for a few years now. Hospital land sold off all over the place, Virgin healthcare, among others, looking after lots of it.
There is a (wholly non-political, unbiased) site called 'FullFact' which I can thoroughly recommend on most matters, for a fair analysis of most things. This is year old but makes quite interesting reading:
https://fullfact.org/health/nhs-video-factchecked/