Backlog of cancer patients awaiting treatment should clear ‘within a matter of months’

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Backlog of cancer patients awaiting treatment should clear ‘within a matter of months’

A backlog of cancer patients awaiting treatment should clear ‘within a matter of months’, the Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said. 

He admitted that the number of cancer patients waiting longer than 62 days – the standard the Government wants to see – increased ‘substantially’ amid lockdown. 

Mr Hancock told ITV News, though, that numbers have ‘more or less halved’ since the peak of the pandemic.

He said: ‘We’ve had to take action right across the NHS to make sure that we deal with Covid, and it was very important when there were a lot of new cases of Covid that people weren’t made more at risk because of treatments, especially for cancer.

‘But now it’s incredibly important for people to come forward.’ 

He refused to a put a ‘precise date’ on the number the backlog would be cleared by, because he said that ‘depends on how much Covid there is’

He refused to a put a ‘precise date’ on the number the backlog would be cleared by, because he said that ‘depends on how much Covid there is’.  

Mr Hancock’s comments come after charity Macmillan Cancer Support found that the number of people in England being treated with radiotherapy for one of five common types of cancer dropped 24% in April, shortly after the country went into lockdown.

And NHS England’s monthly data published on August 13 showed urgent cancer referrals dropped by a fifth in June compared to last year.

That rose to 43% for breast cancer as the number of people – including cancer patients – waiting longer than 18 weeks for hospital treatment rose to 1.85 million that month.

‘What I can say though, is that we are already on the path to recovering the situation in cancer’, he added, after admitting that ‘some cancer treatment did have to stop’.

The number of cancer patients waiting longer than 62 days – the standard the Government wants to see – increased ‘substantially’ amid lockdown

When asked about the Government’s U-turns on a number of recent policies, Mr Hancock said he believed people would have been ‘really cross’ if they did not happen.

‘We’re dealing with a crisis that is entirely unprecedented,’ he responded.

‘We’re dealing with a disease that didn’t even exist, as far as we know, before December last year.

‘And so, we’re taking decisions guided by the science on it.

‘I think people would, what people would get really cross about, is if a government refuse to change even if evidence came up that there was a better option.’

He also hinted that restrictions may not be eased over Christmas to avoid an ‘uptick’ in the number of coronavirus cases. 

When asked whether he could assure that cancer patients will not have their treatment or surgery cancelled again in the event of a potential second wave in the winter, Mr Hancock said he could not guarantee it.

‘What I can say though, is that we are already on the path to recovering the situation in cancer’, he added, after admitting that ‘some cancer treatment did have to stop’. 

On how long he thought the backlog could be cleared, Mr Hancock responded: ‘Well, I very much hope that that will happen within a matter of months.’

There is a likelihood that the virus could spread more easily in cold weather, he warned, as people will spend more time indoors as opposed to outside where it is ‘safer’.

‘We’re doing a huge amount of planning to make sure that the NHS is prepared and can cope to make sure that people can have as much freedom to enjoy Christmas, to enjoy winter, as possible,’ he said.

But when asked whether there will be special rules to allow more people to visit one another over Christmas, Mr Hancock suggested it could lead to a rise in the number of people catching the virus.

‘The danger of a rule like that is that it increases the spread of the disease,’ he said.

‘I mean, there are an awful lot of things I’d love to be able to do, but the risk of them is that we see an uptick in the disease.

‘Hence, we’ve had to take decisions that you wouldn’t ever want to.’

On vaccines, the Health Secretary said there is potential for it to be available this year, but that it is more likely next year.

He continued: ‘It’s a very difficult science, it’s thankfully one that our scientists are up to, and each sign at the moment is going well and going in the right direction.

‘But we don’t want to raise people’s hopes too much.’

The Government is responding to ‘an increase in anti-vax messages and anti-test messages’, he added, with a programme under way to tackle ‘these sorts of conspiracy theories’ which he branded as ‘wrong’. 

AI FUNDING BOOST AIMS TO SPEED UP CANCER DIAGNOSES 

Artificial intelligence capable of spotting deadly diseases like cancer is to receive a £50 million funding boost in a bid to speed up diagnosis times.

The extra cash is being awarded to three specialist centres based in Coventry, Leeds and London, delivering digital upgrades to pathology and imaging services across an additional 38 NHS trusts, the Department of Health and Social Care (DoH) said.

It is hoped the technology will improve outcomes for millions of patients, providing a more accurate diagnosis and freeing up NHS staff time, as part of a Government commitment to detect three quarters of cancers at an early stage by 2028.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: ‘Technology is a force for good in our fight against the deadliest diseases – it can transform and save lives through faster diagnosis, free up clinicians to spend time with their patients and make every pound in the NHS go further.

‘I am determined we do all we can to save lives by spotting cancer sooner.

‘Bringing the benefits of artificial intelligence to the front line of our health service with this funding is another step in that mission.

‘We can support doctors to improve the care we provide and make Britain a world-leader in this field.

‘The NHS is open and I urge anyone who suspects they have symptoms to book an appointment with their GP as soon as possible to benefit from our excellent diagnostics and treatments.’

The Government said the investment will support its long-term response to Covid-19, allowing centres to work with British businesses and thereby support the economic recovery.

The DoH said that since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, more than 92% of urgent cancer referrals have been investigated within two weeks and 85,000 people have started treatment.

Darren Treanor, a consultant pathologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and director of one of the three centres, said: ‘This investment will allow us to use digital pathology to diagnose cancer at 21 NHS trusts in the North, serving a population of six million people.

‘We will also build a national network spanning another 25 hospitals in England, allowing doctors to get expert second opinions in rare cancers, such as childhood tumours, more rapidly.’

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Source: Daily Mail

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