The Labour Party is calling for the national cancer screening
programme to restart fully, as new data shows shockingly low
numbers of people receiving treatment during the covid-19
pandemic.
Today in the House of Commons, Labour will demand ministers
outline a plan to tackle the growing backlog of non Covid care,
especially for cancer treatment.
The number of people starting treatment for cancer after
attending a national screening programme has hit a record low,
with just 319 people getting treatment in July 2020.
The number of people starting treatment after attending a
screening has plummeted by almost two thirds (64 per cent)
compared to the same timeframe last year, suggesting that
patients are finding it harder to access cancer screening.
Even more shockingly, despite the low numbers of people coming
through the system, only a quarter went on to start their
treatment on time in July - way below the operational standard of
90 per cent. In June, only 12.9 per cent of people who attended a
national screening programme started cancer treatment within two
months – the lowest figure by miles since records began.
Since the start of lockdown, 43 per cent of patients didn’t start
their treatment on time after attending a screening, compared to
13 per cent in the same timeframe last year. Nationally, this
target was last met in March 2018.
National screening programmes are in place for breast, cervical
and bowel cancers.
Previous analysis from the Labour Party has highlighted the
increasing backlog of care building up in the health service,
with an increasing number of patients waiting too long for life
saving scans and tests – some of which are also used to diagnose
cancer.
, Labour’s Shadow Health and Social Care
secretary, said:
“Finding out you have cancer from a routine screening is already
a scary thing to go through without the added anxiety of having
to wait for months to start treatment.
“Under normal circumstances a drop in the number of people having
to have cancer treatment would be positive, but given what we
know has happened over the pandemic it instead looks like people
are having trouble accessing screening altogether. It’s
especially worrying because we know that early diagnosis and
treatment is key to surviving cancer.
“Ministers tell us the NHS has ‘coped’ through the Covid-19 peak
but that was on the back of cancelled operations, delayed scans
and diagnostic tests.
“Estimates suggest two million people are waiting for cancer
screening, tests or treatment and that 1600 cases of cancer are
currently left undiagnosed every month.
“It’s now urgent ministers bring forward a plan to tackle the
backlog in non Covid-19 care.”
Ends
Notes to Editors
The latest figures published by NHS England show that in July
almost 490,000 people waited longer than six weeks to receive a
diagnostic test – 40 per cent of the total number of patients
waiting at the end of the month. Likewise, the number of patients
waiting over six weeks for:
- A Colonoscopy, used to detect bowel cancer, has increased by
726 per cent (5,234 to 43,219 since February 2020)
- A Flexible Sigmoidoscopy, also used to detect bowel cancer,
has increased by 990 per cent (1,820 to 19,829)
A Cystoscopy, used to detect bladder cancer, has increased by 812
per cent (1,270 to 11,582)
Data sources:
NHSE:
Cancer Waiting Times – National Time Series Oct 2009 – July 2020
with Revisions.
NHSE:
Monthly diagnostics data 201-21
