22
Jun 2021
MPs warn cancer backlog after Covid threatens ‘devastating health crisis’
MPs and medical experts have warned that urgent action needs to be taken to address the backlog in cancer treatment after Covid and prevent a second “devastating” health crisis.
The group of MPs, leading oncologists and heads of medical colleges are urging the government to deliver a new “radical” national plan to tackle the cancer backlog or risk “tens of thousands of needless cancer deaths”.
The open letter to the prime minister warned that “without urgent action we face a second devastating health crisis as the Covid wards empty and the cancer wards fill.”
Tim Farron, chair of the APPG for radiotherapy, said “It feels like ministers and NHS leaders are hearing our words but still not accepting the magnitude of this Covid-caused cancer crisis. We keep hearing that “everything is in hand” and that there are “encouraging signs” but this flies in the face of warnings from frontline staff, patients and cancer experts.”
Leading oncologist Professor Pat Price said the cancer community was “pleading” with the PM to treat the issue as a national priority.
He said “The entire cancer pathway needs urgently restoring throughout the country, staff are exhausted and we simply don’t have the capacity to catch up.
“We need proper investment, backed by the political leadership to ensure that investment gets to where it is needed most. The prime minister has shown what can be done with the vaccine programme. Now, it’s a national imperative that he works with us to do the same for cancer.”
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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.
Freephone : 0800 304 7382
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