Delays freeze a third of lung cancer screening schemes

Cancer screening programmes designed to save hundreds of lives have been delayed by up to a year as services struggle with staff and equipment shortages, HSJ can reveal.

Of the 14 Lung Health Check Programme sites announced last year, four — or just under a third — have either halted programmes they had started or delayed beginning them, with some now expected not to be operational until after March.

The areas chosen for the scheme activities, which often involved mobile computed tomography units in vans, have high rates of late diagnosis lung cancer. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in February showed CT scanning of high risk groups led to a 26% reduction in deaths in men and between a 39 and 61% reduction in women.

NHS England confirmed “activity had resumed” in nine areas while one has started this month, meaning four areas remain out of action. The organisation declined to answer HSJ’s questions on which services were not running and why. 

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Source: HSJ, 1 December 2020