Urgent cancer ops cancelled in parts of London

Potentially life-saving cancer operations have been put on hold at a major London NHS trust because of the number of beds taken by Covid patients.

King's College Hospital Trust has cancelled all "Priority 2" operations - those doctors judge need to be carried out within 28 days.

Cancer Research UK said such cancellations did not appear to be widespread across the country.

And surgery has not been stopped on the same scale as during the first wave.

Rebecca Thomas, who has had her bowel cancer surgery at King's College Hospital "cancelled indefinitely", told the BBC she felt like she had been left "in limbo".

Until she has surgery her tumour cannot be studied to see how aggressive it is, and so she won't know until then how significant this wait will turn out to be.

A spokesperson for the Trust, which mainly serves patients in south London, said: "Due to the large increase in patients being admitted with COVID-19, including those requiring intensive care, we have taken the difficult decision to postpone all elective procedures, with the exception of cases where a delay would cause immediate harm.

"A small number of cancer patients due to be operated on this week have had their surgery postponed, with patients being kept under close review by senior doctors."

Read full story

Source: 5 January 2021