Understaffing forces UK doctors to choose which cancer patients to treat early

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Cancer patients’ chances of survival are dwindling because of treatment delays in England, as understaffing forces doctors to choose which patients they can treat promptly, a group of medical experts has warned.

The Royal College of Radiologists, together with professional bodies representing oncology doctors, nurses and pharmacists, have written to Steve Barclay, UK health secretary, to express ‘serious concerns about a serious lack of capacity within oncology departments “.

They said many departments “were having to make tough decisions about whether to deny access to approved treatments or prioritize which patients can receive treatment within a safe time at the expense of others.”

For every month a patient delayed starting treatment, the risk of death increased by about 10%. “These kinds of waits are now unfortunately routine,” the letter added.

The state of the SSN it will be a crucial battleground in next year’s general election. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made reducing waiting times for treatment one of the “five priorities” on which he expects to be judged by voters.

The newest NHS England performance data revealed the number of people waiting more than two months to start cancer treatment after an urgent postponement had decreased year-on-year for the first time since the pandemic began.

But at the end of March nearly 20,000 were still waiting for more than the 62-day target. Referrals for suspected cancer have been at record levels over the past two years, according to NHS England.

Meanwhile, a long-delayed workforce plan for the NHS – the first in 20 years – is due to finally be released in the coming weeks.

In their letter to Barclay, the signatories – including the Association of Cancer Physicians, the British Oncology Pharmacy Association and the UK Oncology Nursing Society – said demand for cancer treatment was increasing by around 6-8% each year partly due to the rising incidence of cancer but also as more treatments were being made available on the NHS.

In the 2021-22 financial year, about 92 percent of cancer drugs submitted to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which assesses value for money, were approved, up from 60 percent in 2011-12, the College said. .

However, a lack of investment or equivalent support for the oncology workforce meant that departments couldn’t keep up. Oncology teams “had to build capacity in ways that compromised patient safety and quality of care and put more pressure on already overworked staff,” the doctors added.

Professional bodies have called on government and the NHS to take steps ranging from better workforce planning to “desperately needed action to increase the oncology workforce”.

Without action patients would not receive ‘an optimal and effective level of care’, the NHS would continue to fall behind its cancer targets ‘and the Government would fail to meet its national cancer ambitions’, they said.

The Department of Health and Social Care said the number of NHS cancer doctors increased by more than half between January 2010 and January this year.

This included an increase of more than 3,000 – of whom 63% were consultants, the most senior doctors – ‘who are working with teams to deliver care and reduce NHS waiting lists, a top five government priority’. the department said.

He added, “We want to build on this progress and will be releasing a workforce plan shortly to ensure we have the right number of people, with the right skills, to transform and deliver high-quality services fit for the future.”