NHS doctors could spend the next 12 years wading through a backlog of cancer patients, experts warn.
According to the Institute for Public Policy Research, hospitals will need to schedule 15 percent more appointments than usual in order to maintain patient lists.
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If they can only bump levels up to five per cent above pre-pandemic levels it could take over a decade – until 2033 – to treat everyone who didn’t get seen during the pandemic as well as all the new patients.
Dr Parth Patel from the NHS and member of IPPR said that “The NHS faces an enormous backlog in care that threatens disruption services for well more than a decade.”
We know that every delay can pose a risk to the survival of patients.
With the current structure and resources of the NHS, it is unlikely that the NHS can be cleared of the cancer care backlog.
“The funding announced this month is just about enough to keep the health service afloat, but does not provide the funds needed to bring down pandemic backlogs as quickly as possible or transform service quality.”
The report added: “Behind these statistics are thousands of people for whom it will now be too late to cure their cancer.”
The IPPR estimated that 19,500 people did not get diagnosed when they should have during the pandemic because there were 369,000 fewer doctors’ referrals.
It stated that 15,000 radiotherapy sessions and 187,000 courses of chemotherapy were not completed, compared with an average year.
The think-tank’s experts called for funding for more cancer specialists, better technology and greater efforts to prevent Brits from getting cancer.
This report is coming after Cancer Research UK revealed that 55,000 patients had waited for treatment for more than two months because the NHS missed its waiting time targets for six consecutive years.
Breast Cancer Now’s Baroness Delyth Morgan said: “These alarming estimates lay bare just how urgently investment in equipment, and crucially in NHS staffing, is needed to avoid a devastating decade of further disruption to cancer diagnosis and treatment.”
Professor Pat Price, a cancer doctor and chair of Action Radiotherapy added: “The cancer community has the solutions, but they need investment and the tools to act.
“Radiotherapy could be flying through surgery waiting lists but their hands are tied and there is no sign of money to replace ageing machinery and IT.”