UK’s cancer backlog may take up to 5 years to clear
THE NHS backlog in cancer treatment could last for five years without urgent action, a charity has warned.
Action Radiotherapy told the Daily Express 100,000 people could still be waiting for potentially life- saving procedures due to the pandemic.
It says cancer services would need to be working at around 120 per cent to clear the backlog over the next two years.
But without extra cash and investment in new, “smarter” equipment the problem could take until 2025 to clear.
Professor Pat Price, founder of the Catch Up With Cancer campaign and chair of Action Radiotherapy, said: “Frustration is boiling over that such obvious solutions to prevent a national cancer crisis are being overlooked. Services are not yet at full pre- Covid capacity, so the frightening backlog is building.
“The message to the Government is that you have really got to invest now, just get on with it and put some money behind it and respond to these smart solutions that are available.
“Don’t just keep doing the same thing you have always done and say it’s all all right... that is just leading to a growing cancer backlog every day.
“If they do, then the cancer crisis won’t be back to normal, probably for five years, or more.
“The Government needs to invest now and you will save lives, think smart, think sharp.”
It comes as 60 MPs in the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Radiotherapy have written to Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
Their letter states: “We ask that you and your ministerial colleagues make urgent representations to the Treasury to ensure that the forthcoming Government Spending Review provides solutions to tackle the Covid- induced cancer backlog.
“Put starkly, we are concerned that without investment into the capacity of services, we will never be able to catch up and so fail to prevent thousands of unnecessary deaths to cancer. To our knowledge, current NHS plans do not include the resources that are essential to recover from the backlog.”
The MPs call for “urgent investment in treatment and diagnostics” and “digital and technology innovations that could deliver the ‘ super- boost’ our cancer fighting capacity needs”.
The letter adds: “There are smart and cost- effective solutions which would facilitate a rapid increase in capacity in cancer services that could be rolled out immediately.”
Former Lib- Dem leader Tim Farron, chair of the APPG, said: “People would be shocked to learn that there are solutions to tackle the backlog but they do not appear to be in the Government’s cancer recovery plans.
“Treatments like Covid- safe radiotherapy can cure patients for as little as £ 5,000 to £ 7,000, sometimes in less than 30 minutes, but they need to be set free from the bureaucracy that holds them back.”
Tonia Antoniazzi, chair of the all- party group on Cancer, added: “Months of building a frightening cancer backlog cannot be undone by demanding frontline staff ‘ work harder’.
“Cancer patients cannot be the collateral damage of the pandemic.”
Around 367,000 new cancer cases are diagnosed every year.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Radiotherapy services and the number of people receiving cancer treatments are back up or close to pre- pandemic levels.
“A new expert cancer taskforce will soon publish a recovery plan to further reduce cancer service backlogs.”