Fears for cancer care as Labour warns 330,000 people seen late by NHS

Labour is calling for an NHS rescue plan after almost 330,000 cancer patients waited longer than they should since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

From March 2020 to February 2021, 329,511 NHS appointments for suspected cancer or treatment for cancer, missed key NHS waiting time targets.

This included almost a quarter of a million patients who waited longer than two weeks to be seen by a consultant after an urgent referral by their GP. A total of 37,297 waited more than two months from an urgent referral to a first treatment for cancer.

More than 28,000 women waited longer than two weeks for an urgent referral for breast cancer symptoms.

Research by the party also found 13,314 diagnosed cancer patients waited more than month for their first treatment with 6,000 people waiting more than a month for surgery and 3,151 people waiting more than a month for radiotherapy.

Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said the NHS needs a rescue plan and investment in both staff and equipment to recover after the pandemic.

Speaking at a roundtable discussion with patients and campaigners on Thursday, Mr Ashworth said: “I think everyone understands we've had Covid, but to be frank we shouldn't have to make a choice between Covid and cancer care. This will cost lives. It means people will get incredibly sick and ill when otherwise they could have avoided that fate.”

He added: “We should have a well-funded, well-staffed NHS with the modern equipment to deliver the cancer care that people deserve and expect.”

He said the government should make a guarantee that no patient will wait more than year under the NHS constitution. He also said NHS needed a multi-year fair pay rise.

Labour’s call for investment comes as the latest NHS waiting times data shows nearly 400,000 patients have waited longer than a year for routine treatments in February 2021, up from just 1,613 a year ago.

On cancer specifically, the NHS England data showed targets for two week, referrals and treatments were being missed with 70 per cent of all patients starting treatment for cancer within 62 days of being referred by their GP.

Baroness Delyth Morgan, chief executive at Breast Cancer Now said: “As lockdown restrictions ease in England, and we look ahead to a ‘new normal’, all vital targets being missed for breast cancer again in February is a stark reminder of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“While it’s difficult to predict the full impacts of the pandemic on breast cancer, our estimate that almost 11,000 people could be living with undiagnosed breast cancer in the UK due to the pandemic illustrates the scale of disruption to cancer services; and tragically, in the worst cases, some women could die from the disease due to delays.”

During the roundtable with Mr Ashworth, Chris Hughes who supports cancer patients via a helpline said: “With any cancer people want action to happen as quickly as possible. But I think part of the problem is that they’re actually just left in limbo with this. They get the whole Covid issue and the problems that that has caused in the NHS, but actually what they're looking for is some certainty.”

Craig Russell, from the Catch Up With Cancer campaign, whose daughter Kelly died aged 31 from bowel cancer, told Mr Ashworth: “What we need to do, unfortunately does involve money, but considering we've just spent £300 billion trying to save lives on Covid, I think that cancer patients deserve that investment in giving them the chance to fight for their lives because at the moment they're being terribly neglected.”

Responding to the data on waiting lists and the pressure on the NHS, Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers said: “It’s very striking when I talk to trust chief executives – particularly those who have served for a long time – they say it’s beginning to feel like the early 2000s when there were far too many people on waiting lists, for years not months.

“This is true not just for planned operations and cancer care but also mental health and community services.

“The solution then was five successive years of real terms NHS funding increases of over 7 per cent a year. That’s double the amount that’s currently being proposed for NHS funding this time round.”

The Department of Health and Social Care was approached for comment.