People with cancer face ‘ticking timebomb’ due to NHS staff shortages

People with cancer face a “ticking timebomb” of delays in getting diagnosed and treated because the NHS is too short-staffed to provide prompt care, senior doctors have warned.

An NHS-wide shortage of radiologists and oncologists means patients are enduring long waits to have surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy and have a consultant review their care.

Hold-ups lead to some people’s cancer spreading, which can reduce the chances of their treatment working and increase the risk of death, the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) said.

NHS cancer services are struggling to keep up with rising demand for tests, such as scans and X-rays, and treatment, created by the growing number of people getting the disease.

All radiology bosses surveyed said during 2024 their units could not scan all patients within the NHS’s maximum waiting times because they did not have enough staff.

“Delays in cancer diagnosis and treatment will inevitably mean that for some patients their cancer will progress while they wait, making successful treatment more difficult and risking their survival,” said Dr Katharine Halliday, the RCR’s president.

The findings are particularly worrying because research has found that a patient’s risk of death can increase by about 10% for each month they have to wait for treatment.

Nine out of 10 cancer centre chiefs said patients were delayed starting their treatment last year while seven in 10 said they feared workforce gaps were putting patients’ safety at risk.

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Source: The Guardian, 5 June 2025