Councillors have called for urgent action to improve “unacceptable” levels of cancer diagnosis for residents.

Labour group leader Warren Morgan said it was “imperative” that the reasons behind Brighton and Hove’s poor performance in a number of diagnosis outcomes were uncovered and resolved quickly.

The call comes after a new report to be discussed next week shows Brighton and Hove trailing behind national and regional counterparts for cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Public health bosses said they hoped that increased investment would eventually bear fruit although its impact would not be felt immediately.

The Joint Health and Wellbeing Update published this week shows that up to March 2013, the number of eligible residents receiving breast screenings was “significantly worse” than for England as a whole, that bowel cancer screening was likely to be as bad while cervical screening uptake was the worst in the South East.

The report also states that for Brighton and Hove city patients had lower one year survival rates than the national average for breast, lung and lower gastrointestinal cancers, with some of the lowest survival rates in the South East Coast region.

The update said that the most recent data for 2011/12 shows that Brighton and Hove had a higher spend but worse outcomes compared to other areas nationally.

Councillor Morgan said: “It is imperative that we find out what is going wrong and how we can ensure far better early detection rates and take up of cancer screening available, which give people far more of a fighting chance of surviving something that affects so many families.”

Councillor Ken Norman, Conservative adult care and health spokesman, said: “It is concerning when we are not performing as well as we could and should be.

“However, I am confident that we have the expertise and money in the local health service to turn the situation around and I know how hard the staff are working to achieve this.”

Health bosses said the uptake of screening was being promoted around the city.

Martina Pickin, public health specialist for Brighton and Hove City Council and Anthony Flint, the Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group’s clinical commissioning manager, with responsibility for cancer made a joint statement.

They stated the CCG had set-up a Brighton and Hove Cancer Action Group to support a city-wide drive on service improvements.

They added: “Whilst the city’s mortality rate is higher than the national average the data is from three years ago, during which time spending on cancer services and programmes has increased.”