We need clarity on cancer
CANCER patients are facing delays in treatments and uncertainty caused by mixed messages from the government, West Lancashire’s MP has warned.
Rosie Cooper vowed to continue to press Health Secretary Matt Hancock for answers after being inundated with messages from across the country revealing the inconsistency between the government’s words and the real situation.
At a Health and Social Care Select Committee meeting, Ms Cooper questioned Mr Hancock about what was being done to ensure that all urgent cancer treatment was being carried out.
He responded by explaining that some treatments to patients with weak immune systems are inadvisable during the outbreak but that patients should still come forward and will be treated “as best as we possibly can within the constraints of the fact that we have a very serious virus stalking the land.”
She also asked whether patients could be confident that hopitals are free of Covid-19 thanks to frequent and widespread testing of staff but this point was not answered.
Despite what she described as “reassuring words” from Mr Hancock, the Labour MP says she has since been inundated with emails from across the country evidencing the clear inconsistency between “what the Health Secretary believes is happening, and the reality of cancer treatment across the UK”.
The emails received document harrowing ordeals of patients told by their clinicians that urgent treatment was necessary, only to be still waiting for an appointment for an operation or scan, even just an update weeks or months later.
Ms Cooper commented: “People have had operations cancelled, scans and radiotherapy postponed due to reallocation of resources, staff and theatres. Cancer patients have been left dealing with the unknown, scared that their life is threatened.
“One man reports that he asked for his operation to be delayed a couple of weeks as his daughter was coming from Australia, to be told ‘no, they wouldn’t be comfortable with that,’ yet nearly two months later he hasn’t heard a thing.”
Research by cancer charities has also suggested that despite the Government assuring people they are ‘open for business’, urgent cancer referrals have fallen dramatically.
Experts in the field are now urging the Government to identify the cause of this reduction as they are worried that once the lockdown is lifted, there will be a dramatic increase in the number of cancer referrals and people who could have been treated now being considered terminal.
After again questioning Mr Hancock in Parliament without receiving a direct answer, Ms Cooper promised to keep pushing for the issue to be answered in detail.
She said; “It is terrifying that I am having to fight this hard for the Health Secretary to even acknowledge the lack of clarity that patients and NHS staff are experiencing.
“How can they have hope when the people at the top are oblivious to the problems they are facing daily?
“Cancer patients are desperate and want their promised treatment plan completed without further delay.
“Widespread testing of staff and patients would also give more confidence that treatments are carried out in a safer Covid-19 free environment.
“We cannot keep kicking the can down the road and hoping this problem goes away. The Government need to immediately address this and provide clear guidance to all Trusts and clinicians about the need for urgent cancer treatment to proceed.”