Former NHS chief: Covid cancer wait made me lose faith in system
‘The NHS was shut for business. For my consultamt to be invisible for two weeks is irresponsible’
A FORMER NHS chief who spent thousands on private cancer treatment to avoid a three-month wait during the pandemic has said he lost faith in Britain’s healthcare system.
Rob McMahon, who served as chief executive officer of Leicester City West Primary Care Trust, was diagnosed with prostate cancer two years ago aged 68. The tumour was so large that it covered his entire prostate, and he needed urgent tests.
However, he went private when his consultant said he would have to wait three months for a biopsy to be carried out during the pandemic.
The father of two, who is based near Worcestershire, ended up spending £20,000 of his own money to fast track the tests he urgently needed.
Mr McMahon said the way some cancer patients were managed by the NHS was “irresponsible”, and his own prognosis could have been far worse if he had not taken action.
He said he waited two weeks from first being told he might have cancer to receiving that brief phone call from his consultant to tell him about the threemonth wait. “The day before my appointment, I got a text message to say don’t come to the hospital and the consultant will contact you by telephone,” he said. “The consultant never called me and it was a Friday so there was no way of getting in touch. I was told the consultant had gone into isolation, but someone would be in touch. But I never got a call.
“I contacted one of the junior doctors and they said that the team was reviewing cases and someone would contact me soon. It was a week by now and a long time to be kept in the dark. Looking at information about prostate cancer, it was scary.” When Mr McMahon finally received the call, he was informed it would be three months before the biopsy. After going private, Mr McMahon was told a three-month delay could have resulted in his cancer not being treatable.
He had his prostate removed in May 2020 and now has quarterly check-ups. Mr McMahon added: “I know there were protocols for Covid for all specialties in the event of a pandemic, but in this case it wasn’t followed,” he said. “The most important thing was Covid, and the NHS was shut for business. For my consultant to basically be invisible for two weeks is irresponsible.”
Prof Karol Sikora, a leading oncologist, said he had repeatedly urged the Government to address the cancer risks posed by lockdown.
Messages to “Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives” meant untold numbers of patients did not come forward to alert medics to symptoms, for fear of being a burden, he said.
Others had vital checks like mammograms cancelled, meaning disease was spotted far later, when less treatable, while many of those who were diagnosed suffered treatment delays.
Mr McMahon was under the care of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust when he heard of the three-month wait for a biopsy. Matthew Hopkins, the trust chief executive, said: “On behalf of the trust I apologise to Mr McMahon if any aspect of his care fell below the high standards we set for ourselves.” NHS England was contacted for comment.