Cancer patients’ scans will be cancelled over ‘severe’ supply shortages of vital chemical, minister warns

Cancer scans will be delayed and cancelled due to a “severe” shortage of a chemical which has left hospitals with “no supply at all”, a government minister has warned.

The Department of Health and Social Care issued a critical alert on Friday over the “severe shortage” of a radioactive chemical needed for the diagnosis of thousands of cancers, including prostate and breast cancer.

The fresh alert comes after The Independent revealed warnings from doctors and specialists in August that cancer care had been hit by a “perfect” storm in shortages of radioisotopes. Experts at the British Nuclear Medicine Society told The Independent at the time hundreds of cancer scans were being cancelled due to worsening shortages.

Now minister Karin Smyth has admitted the fresh shortage will lead to delays in access to care and cancellations as officials have been unable to mitigate the impact of the shortages.

The shortage comes after pharmaceutical supplier, Curium, was forced to stop production of a nuclear product that is needed to create Technetium-99m, a radioactive chemcial used in diagnostic imaging.

As a result of the shortage, clinicians are having to prioritise patients needing the most urgent scans, while hospitals have been called on to aid one another.

The shortage is expected to last for at least four weeks.