Labour calls for cancer screening catch up

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 pandemic.

The party is demanding that ministers outline a plan to tackle the growing backlog of non-coronavirus care, especially for cancer treatment. New data shows that 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.

Furthermore, the number of people starting treatment after attending a screening has plummeted by 64 per cent compared to the same timeframe last year, suggesting that patients are finding it harder to access cancer screening.

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.

Jonathan Ashworth, 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 1,600 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.”