Toll of pandemic outbreak on the desperately ill
that, across the UK, 35,000 more people could die of cancer next year because of the impact of coronavirus.
In Scotland, the total number of people being treated in hospital halved at the start of the outbreak as wards were cleared and new admissions severely restricted over fears that Covid-19 would overwhelm resources.
By the end of May, medical admissions for conditions such as heart disease and cancer remained 22 per cent lower than normal, according to a Public Health Scotland report. The president of the Royal Col lege of Surgeons of Edinburgh has warned more Scottish cancer patients will die because coronavirus has delayed diagnostic procedures and treatments.
Professor Michael Griffin said: “Nobody is going to argue that lives will not be lost. It’s not just planned operations that have gone into a backlog. It’s also all the patients that weren’t diagnosed during the lockdown.
“There are two reasons behind patients not being diagnosed. Initially, it was public spiritedness. People didn’t want to trouble the health service when it was at risk of being overwhelmed.
“But now they’ve lost trust in going to hospital because they don’t want to get Covid-19. So I think patients have voted with their feet and that they’re anxious and worried about presenting.
“My advice to patients is to present if you have symptoms because the risk of not doing that is a risk of missing early diagnosis of cancer.”
Nightingale hospitals in England are to be used as cancer testing centres to deal with a backlog. Griffin wants the emergency Louisa Jordan field hospital at Glasgow’s SEC to be used to treat patients north of the Border.
He added: “Every single opportunity needs to be taken and that is where the Louisa Jordan could come in. Diagnostic investigations could be done there.
“That would be a way of dealing with the two-week wait that happened in England and Wales to patients waiting for investigations to rule out cancer.
“Private institutions have a role and it is absolutely crucial that governments, whether the Scottish Government or thetheUKGovernment,UKGovernment, make sure these resources are available for the massive catch-up that we need to make.”
Janice Preston, of Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “We need to understand these figures and make sure people have the support they need if they’re at home.
“There is a huge backlog of cancer investigation and treatment cases that need to be carried out and we need really swift action to address that.”
The Scottish Government said: “Following careful clinical input, the decision to postpone or delay some cancer treatments – while necessary – was one of the most difficult taken in light of Covid-19, given the potential impact it would have on so many people.
“We are working with the NHS and all relevant stakeholders to consider how services, from screening to diagnosis and treatment, can be resumed as quickly and safely as possible.
“The majority of cancer treatments continued throughout this pandemic. Some patients’ treatment plans may change to minimise individual risk.
“Work is ongoing to bet ter understand the excess deaths. It is l ikely that there are a variety of contributing factors.”