Cancer services plunged into worst winter on record

A new British Medical Association report has found that NHS cancer services plunged into their worst winter on record as patients were left waiting weeks for treatment last year.

NHS Pressures – Winter 2018/19; A Hidden Crisis, uses NHS England figures to examine the performance of the NHS during recent winters and over the long term. The doctor’s leaders body has warned that thousands of cancer patients were left waiting weeks for treatment this winter according to the NHS’s own data.

Key findings in the report include: almost a quarter of cancer patients had to wait more than two months for their first treatment after an urgent referral by a GP, with only 76.2 per cent being seen within the 62 days - well below the 85 per cent target; the number of people waiting to see a cancer specialist for more than 21 days rose to a historic high of 8,820, up from 5,099 last winter; and the NHS failed to meet its target of 93 per cent of patients being seen by a cancer specialist within two weeks of referral between January and February 2019 for the first time in a winter period, registering 92.5 per cent.

Outside of cancer treatment, the BMA reports that a record 6.2 million patients visited major emergency care departments this winter and that almost one in four patients were left waiting more than four hours to be seen at major emergency care units and 214,000 were left on trolleys waiting more than four hours to be seen after being admitted.

Chaand Nagpaul, BMA council chair, said: “Behind these statistics, which show the NHS plunged deeper into crisis this winter, are stories of real lives in distress. Forcing a patient to wait two months for their first cancer treatment is shameful for a leading nation and as a doctor, I can imagine only too well the distress this will cause to them and their families. It also places stress on the clinicians who treat them as they are well aware that the cancer may have worsened during the delay between referral and treatment.

“The government needs to realise that the crisis in the NHS is not going away as our health service struggles in an underfunded and understaffed environment against a backdrop of rising patient demand. We need urgently to ensure that the NHS is provided with the 10,000 extra beds its needs and that funding is brought up to levels enjoyed by other leading Western European countries, a target that will not be reached under the government’s recently announced Long Term Plan for the NHS.”