‘NHS is not catching up’ on cancer screening
Backlog of 8,000 cases as services try to get back on track
‘We are treating those with greater clinical need first’
Thousands of patients in Kent are still waiting for a cancer screening after the coronavirus pandemic caused a major backlog.
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust had 8,000 cases still outstanding as the service gets back on its feet, Kent County Council’s (KCC) health and overview scrutiny committee was told.
Sevenoaks county councillor Nick Chard (Con), who revealed the case numbers, said: “The waiting lists are growing. The diagnostic screening for breast cancer is getting longer. The NHS is not catching up.”
After the meeting last Wednesday, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust said some faceto-face services have restarted over the last three months, with the intention to be at normal capacity by the end of August. A trust spokesman said: “We are quickly and carefully reviewing all of our patients to ensure we treat those who have greater clinical need first and we would like to thank them for their patience and understanding.”
Wilf Williams, accountable officer at NHS Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) admitted that restarting bowel and breast cancer screenings were two of the “greatest challenges” for the NHS. A screening means checking your body for cancer before you have or show any symptoms. Tests may find breast, cervical, and colorectal cancers early, when treatment is likely to work best.
On the potential restart of services in Kent, Mr Williams said he is hopeful that bowel screening services will be reinstated on August 7 across west Kent sites. Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust says its breast screening service for high risk patients restarted on April 27 - a month after lockdown started followed by a more general service on July 13. The bowel cancer screening service has been running since May 19. However, KCC’s health and overview scrutiny committee questioned NHS bosses around the reported delays and asked for more details to be provided to them in two months’ time.