Incurable cancer patients ‘are getting poor care’

WOMEN WITH incurable breast cancer are receiving poor care due to a lack of specialist nurses, according to a new report.

A study for Breast Cancer Care found that just a fifth of NHS organisations have one or more clinical nurse specialists dedicated to women whose cancer has come back and spread.

Advanced cancer occurs when breast cancer cells spread from the breast to other parts of the body, such as the bones, liver, lungs and brain.

It is incurable but some women can live for several years with treatment.

There are an estimated 36,000 people living with this type of secondary breast cancer in the UK and each year around 11,600 die from the disease.

It has been mandatory since 2013 for NHS trusts to collect data on how many women have advanced breast cancer, but only a third do so.

The new study of NHS hospitals and health boards across England, Scotland and Wales, found that 76 per cent agree there is not enough specialist nursing care for people with incurable breast cancer.

Some 95 per cent of women first diagnosed with breast cancer are given access to a named clinical nurse specialist.

But only 21 per cent of NHS organisations had a specialist nurse dedicated to those whose cancer has advanced and is incurable.

A further 33 per cent had a nurse who looked after patients both with incurable cancer and those who were newly-diagnosed.

Samia al Qadhi, chief executive of Breast Cancer Care, said: “These findings highlight the worrying truth - care for people with incurable secondary breast cancer is not good enough.”

Patient Laura Ashurst, 49, from North Yorkshire, has had incurable advanced cancer for a decade.

She said: “When I had primary breast cancer there were two nurses and I was given a phone number for anything I needed at all. With my secondary breast cancer diagnosis this support is just not there. There’s no one person with all the specialist skills to help me through. Being told I had incurable secondary breast cancer felt like going into the abyss. It is hugely isolating.”