A coalition of 47 cancer charities has warned the Government that cancer deaths will rise for the first time in decades unless the Covid backlog is addressed. MailOnline has the story.
Cancer deaths will rise for the first time in decades unless urgent action is taken to tackle the Covid backlog, the Government was warned today.
One Cancer Voice, a coalition of 47 cancer charities, argued more money and staff are desperately needed to address problems stemming from the pandemic.
The charities – speaking collectively for the first time – also asked for the NHS to be given greater access to private facilities.
They said almost 45,000 UK patients “living with cancer without knowing it” should have started treatment in 2020 but did not due to delays caused by coronavirus.
Cancer experts today praised the charities for raising awareness of “the biggest crisis in oncology” seen in more than 50 years.
Official data released last week showed cancer waiting times have spiked during the pandemic because hospital staff and surgeries have been preoccupied with coronavirus patients.
The proportion of suspected patients seen by a specialist within the two-week target hit a record-low of 83% in January, NHS England said.
It means nearly 30,000 people with suspected cancer waited more than a fortnight to find out whether or not they had the disease in January. Early treatment and diagnosis is crucial in preventing the disease spreading and becoming deadly.
And the pandemic has led to an increase in the proportion of patients waiting more than a month to start crucial cancer treatment after their diagnosis.
Figures from NHS England last week revealed that cancer is not the only disease to have been neglected because of the focus on Covid. Altogether, some 4.59 million people were waiting to begin treatment at the end of January – the highest since records began in August 2007.
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