Sunday, August 16, 2020
Thousands Perished From Cance Due To Lock Down
Thousands of people could die of cancer after the number of urgent hospital referrals plunged by 43 per cent during lockdown.
As fewer patients see their GPs with
cancer symptoms - before being referred to specialists for scans - the
disease is being picked up too late, experts fear.
GPs made 339,242 urgent referrals for
people with cancer symptoms between April and June in England, more than
250,000 fewer than the 594,060 figure reported in the same months in
2019.
There are also delays in accessing the
necessary treatments and diagnoses once a patient goes to hospital, a
study by healthcare management consultancy Carnall Farrar and the
Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) found.
Thousands of people could die of cancer
after the number of urgent hospital referrals plunged by 43 per cent
during lockdown (file image)
Researchers believe the lockdown numbers
could have a detrimental effect on the country's cancer survival rate
while setting Britain's progress in getting a grip on the disease back
by ten years.
They have urged the NHS to 'build back better' as cancer services begin to reach their full capacity again.
Lung cancer's five-year survival rates
will drop from 16.2 per cent to 15.4 per cent for those diagnosed in
2020 - the same outcome seen in 2017.
The survival rate for colorectal cancer
for the same period has dropped from 58.4 per cent to 56.1 per cent -
the same rate it stood at in 2010.
Cancer charities said the results are
'stark' and show the effect of cancer services being 'derailed' during
the coronavirus crisis, The Sunday Times reports
Scientists examined the effect of coronavirus on survival rates using Office for National Statistics figures.
Associate director at the IPPR Harry
Quilter-Pinner said: 'Our analysis shows that thousands could die early
of conditions such as cancer as a result of the lockdown.
He said a more favourable system is
needed which 'demands bolder action on public health to prevent people
from getting cancer, and also more investment in NHS diagnostics to
ensure that if people do get cancer, we can catch it early.'
Earlier this month, a leading medic warned that Britain has become ‘obsessed’ with Covid-19 deaths as new figures show there are now more people dying from bowel cancer.
As fewer patients see their GPs with
cancer symptoms - before being referred to specialists for scans -
cancers are being picked up too late, experts fear (file image)
Professor Karol Sikora, an oncologist,
said cancer deaths would start to climb if Ministers did not start
focusing on non-coronavirus patients, who have found it harder to get
vital tests.
At the peak of the outbreak in
mid-April, more than 8,000 coronavirus-related deaths were occurring
every week in England and Wales, according to the Office for National
Statistics.
The number has dropped steeply since then.
In the week ending July 17, the latest for which figures are available, there were 305 in all of the UK.
By contrast, there are 319 bowel cancer
deaths every week in the UK, based on an annual figure of 16,600 from
the charity Cancer Research UK.
Prof Sikora, chief medical officer of
private Rutherford Health, which has started providing cancer tests and
treatments for NHS patients, said: ‘We’ve been spending too much time
obsessed by Covid deaths and not enough trying to get our health system
back to business as usual to avoid other deaths.’
He said bowel cancer was ‘common’ –
there are 42,000 new cases every year – and while it can be cured in
more than 90 per cent of patients if spotted early, ‘once it spreads
that drops to less than 15 per cent’.
Source: http://www.scoopyweb.com
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Labels: Cancer, Deaths, Hospital Referrals, Lock Down
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