Senior doctors say NHS struggling to provide safe cancer care

The Royal College of Radiologists is warning that all four UK nations are currently facing “chronic staff shortages”, with patients waiting too long for vital treatment and tests.

Fifty per cent of all cancer units are now reporting frequent delays for both chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Ministers have said a workforce strategy for the NHS in England is due shortly.

The plan, which will set out how the government plans to fill staffing gaps over the next fifteen years, has been repeatedly delayed, to the frustration of some in the health service.

It comes as new figures show 22,533 patients in England were waiting for longer than two months for cancer treatment at the end of April, up from 19,023 at the end of March.

The RCR says that for each month a patient waits to begin cancer treatment, the risk of death is increased by around 10 per cent.

Dr Tom Roques, a consultant oncologist and vice-president of the RCR, said “There are examples in almost every cancer centre where parts of the service just aren’t running as well as we would like.

“We’re having to tell patients all the time that we can’t quite treat them as quickly as we would like, or in the way that we’d like, and that’s a stressful thing to have to do.”

The Department of Health said that the total number of full-time staff in the cancer workforce in England had increased by 51 per cent to 33,093 since 2020.

A spokesperson added “We want to build on this progress and will publish a workforce plan shortly to ensure we have the right numbers of staff, with the right number of skills.”

Chadwick Lawrence’s Legal 500 recommended West Yorkshire medical negligence solicitors, have over 20 years of experience and specialist expertise in medical negligence investigations and claims, supporting injured clients and their families through the legal process and helping them obtain answers, justice and compensation after life-changing events including cases involving delays in diagnosis and treatment of cancer.  We have offices in Huddersfield, Wakefield, Halifax, Leeds, Bradford and Morley and represent clients locally and nationally.

If you or a relative have been injured as a result of clinical/medical negligence, please call for free legal advice from our medical negligence lawyers on the freephone number below or e-mail us.

Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (jacquelinevance@chadlaw.co.uk), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

Freephone : 0800 304 7382