NHSE director: It could take a year for cancer services to return to normal

NHS England’s cancer director has said it could take another year for the level of cancer treatments and diagnosis carried out to return to normal, after being impeded by COVID-19.

National cancer director Dame Cally Palmer told HSJ’s national cancer forum event last week that activity over the past 12 months had been 89% of the previous year, but the service was committed to getting “fully reset” to 2019 levels by March 2022.

She shared information showing that, by December 2020, the amount of treatment being carried out following an urgent referral, for most cancers, exceeded December 2019 levels, but that there are still significant treatment backlogs.

And, for lung cancer patients, the number of treatments carried out in December 2020 was only 73% of that a year earlier — a decrease from September and October 2020 levels — as covid pressures rose during the third wave. Lung cancer is one of the most amenable to treatment if picked up early.

Other areas of diagnostics and treatment have also been severely impeded because of requirements to change practice to reduce the risk of spreading covid, particularly to vulnerable patients.

Dame Cally, also chief executive of the Royal Marsden Foundation Trust, said the service was committed to returning to at least normal levels of activity across the board by March next year.

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Source: HSJ, 12 March 2021