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Found 963 results
  1. News Article
    Hospitals and care homes have not received a single penny of a £500m emergency fund promised by the government to prevent the NHS becoming overwhelmed this winter, the Guardian has learned. Ministers announced they were injecting the cash into the health and social care system last month, to help get thousands of medically fit patients out of hospital into either their own home or a care home as soon as possible in an effort to better prepare the NHS for the coming months. “At the moment, one of the key challenges is discharging patients from hospital into more appropriate care settings to free up beds and help improve ambulance response times,” Thérèse Coffey, the then health and social care secretary, said on 22 September. “To tackle that, I can announce today that we are launching a £500m adult social care discharge fund for this winter.” However, the Guardian has been told that none of the funding has materialised. Senior health and social care sources described the government’s failure to release the promised cash as “inexplicable” and “outrageous”. More than 13,000 of the 100,000 NHS hospital beds in England currently contain “delayed discharge” patients, which has led to A&E units becoming heavily congested and long delays in ambulance handovers. As a direct result, thousands of 999 patients are suffering potential “severe harm” every month because ambulances are stuck outside hospitals. “Leaders across the NHS and local authorities are yet to see a single penny of this investment or any official detail on how it will be allocated,” said Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation. “Currently, only two-fifths of patients in hospital are able to leave when they are ready to do so, including due to problems accessing social care, yet health leaders still do not know how and when the £500m will be released to the system. So close to winter, this is unbelievable. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 31 October 2022
  2. News Article
    Steve Barclay is back as England's health secretary, just as the NHS prepares for what its chief executive Amanda Pritchard says could be a "very, very challenging winter". The government has said "intensive work" is under way in the 15 most under-pressure hospital trusts in England, to speed up ambulance delays, free up beds and reduce waiting times in A&E. Emergency departments across the UK are struggling to quickly treat patients. Only 57% of people who turned up at major A&E departments in England last month were seen, admitted or discharged within four hours, well below the 95% national target. The latest figures from Gloucestershire Royal show it performs slightly worse than average, with 55% dealt with in four hours. One medic, speaking anonymously to the BBC, said: "I wouldn't bring a member of my family to this hospital. And winter is going to be worse unless something changes fast." Read full story Source: BBC News, 28 October 2022
  3. News Article
    A patient flow model which involves moving A&E patients to wards “irrespective” of whether there are beds available, is under review for wider rollout by NHS England and is being endorsed by senior clinicians, despite safety fears, HSJ has learned. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine has said it would be “unethical” for leaders not to at least consider implementing some form of “continuous flow” model for emergency patients. The approach has been been trialled recently by North Bristol Trust and at several London trusts. HSJ understands NHS England is considering the wider implementation of the continuous flow model, although no final decision has yet been made. The calls come despite patient safety concerns about the model being raised by the Nuffield Trust think tank, who said the evidence for the model is “poor” and could spread risk to other parts of the hospital. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 21 October 2022
  4. News Article
    Paramedics in England cannot respond to 117,000 urgent 999 calls every month because they are stuck outside hospitals looking after patients, figures show. The amount of time ambulance crews had to wait outside A&E units meant they were unavailable to attend almost one in six incidents. Long delays in handing patients over to A&E staff meant 38,000 people may have been harmed last month alone – one in seven of the 292,000 who had to wait at least 15 minutes. Of those left at risk of harm, 4,100 suffered potential “severe harm”, according to the bosses of England’s ambulance services. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 21 October 2022
  5. News Article
    Jeremy Hunt has been told that any cuts to the health budget will in effect “kill” dental services across the UK and deny millions of patients access to a dentist on the NHS. The chancellor has told members of the cabinet that “everything is on the table” as he seeks to find tens of billions of pounds in savings after ditching the economic plan of Liz Truss, who said on Thursday she was standing down as prime minister. Health is one key area expected to be hit. But in an email to Hunt seen by the Guardian, the head of the British Dental Association (BDA) said in plain terms that because NHS dentistry had already “faced cuts with no parallel anywhere in the health service” over the last decade, any further reduction in funding could trigger its collapse. “In blunt terms, NHS dentistry is approaching the end of the road,” Martin Woodrow, the BDA chief executive, wrote in the memo. “There is simply no more fat to trim, short of denying access to an even greater proportion of the population.” In the memo to Hunt, Woodrow wrote: “Recent NHS England board papers confirm officials are euphemistically ‘taking steps to maximise access from existing resources’. We know what that means. Yes, we recognise the unparalleled pressures on public spending. Equally, we cannot escape the hard fact that a service millions depend on materially lacks the resources to underpin any rebuild. “You have also spoken of the need for all departments to seek ‘efficiency savings’. Since the financial crash, NHS dentistry has faced cuts with no parallel anywhere in the health service, going into the pandemic with lower government contributions – in cash terms – than it saw a decade ago. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 21 October 2022
  6. News Article
    The main corridor of an acute hospital has been closed to patients and staff and turned into a ‘makeshift ward’, in what sources describe as an ‘absolutely unprecedented’ situation. The move by Aintree Hospital comes after staff clashed with paramedics last week about whether ambulance patients could be brought into the crowded emergency department. One staff member, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “It’s exceptional for this to happen, but I can see it happening more over winter. It’s a rock and a hard place… either you wait in the ambulance if the queue is too long, or you wait in the main hospital corridor. Neither option is ideal.” Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “Across the country, the urgent and emergency care system is in unprecedented crisis. Emergency medicine teams and our paramedic colleagues are doing their very best to deliver effective care in exceptionally difficult circumstances. Circumstances like these require ICB leaders to engage, take control of the situation and accept their responsibility. This will both help to de-escalate the situation and ensure the right decision is made for the patients, the ED teams and ambulance crews." Read full story Source: HSJ, 19 October 2022 (paywalled)
  7. News Article
    NHS England has warned trusts that it is “essential” that elective procedures go ahead over winter, despite acknowledging hospital occupancy is running at an “all time high”. New winter planning guidance from NHS England, published today, says electives should go ahead “unless there are clear patient safety reasons for postponing activity,” and trusts considering cancelling significant levels of elective activity should escalate to their regional directors to mobilise mutual aid where possible. NHSE has said bed occupancy “continues to be at all-time highs” and encouraged systems to “take all opportunities” to maximise physical and virtual bed capacity, including the use of “previously mothballed beds”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 18 October 2022
  8. News Article
    The NHS is setting up “war rooms” as it prepares for one of the toughest winters in its history, officials have announced. In a letter to staff, health leaders in England set out “winter resilience plans”, which include new system control centres that are expected to be created in every local area. These centres will be expected to manage demand and capacity across the entire country by constantly tracking beds and attendances. They will be operated by clinicians and experts who can make quick decisions about emerging challenges in the health service, NHS England said. The data-driven centres will be able to spot when hospitals are near capacity and could benefit from mutual aid. Where A&Es are especially busy, ambulances will be diverted to nearby hospitals with more space. Meanwhile, NHS England announced plans to expand falls response services so people are treated in their homes, avoiding unnecessary trips to hospital where possible. NHS England’s chief executive, Amanda Pritchard, said: “Winter comes hot on the heels of an extremely busy summer – and with the combined impact of flu, Covid and record NHS staff vacancies – in many ways, we are facing more than the threat of a ‘twindemic’ this year. “So it is right that we prepare as much as possible – the NHS is going further than it ever has before in anticipation of a busy winter, and today we have set out further plans to step up these preparations – building on our existing plans to boost capacity set out in August this year." Read full story Source: The Guardian, 19 October 2022
  9. News Article
    Shortages and rising costs of medicines could result in patients not receiving important prescriptions, community pharmacists have warned. Commonly prescribed drugs used to treat conditions such as osteoporosis, high blood pressure and mental health are among those affected. The Department of Health (DoH) said a support package worth £5.3m for the sector is being finalised. But Community Pharmacy NI said this "falls way short of what is needed". David McCrea from Dundela Pharmacy said the price of some medicines had been raised "fiftyfold". "As a community pharmacist for over 30 years, I have never witnessed the price of medicines rise this sharply," Mr McCrea said. "It is becoming increasingly hard for us to afford to buy the medicines from wholesalers because we are not being paid the full cost of these drugs by the department." Mr McCrea added the current situation was causing "financial stress" and was becoming unsustainable. "The bottom line is that we are now facing the situation where we will not be able to afford to supply our patients with essential medicines, within weeks." Read full story Source: BBC News, 18 October 2022
  10. News Article
    Angry exchanges between paramedics and A&E staff in Liverpool have broken out after new measures were deployed to hold and treat patients in the back of ambulances. Sources said there have been “Mexican standoff” situations at Aintree Hospital in recent days, after hospital staff insisted patients who had been brought inside should be returned to ambulance vehicles. Staff at North West Ambulance Service told HSJ they were informed of a new protocol last week, which said patients should be kept in the back of ambulances if the corridor of the emergency department is full with patients. There have been repeated orders from NHS England and the Care Quality Commission over the past year for hospitals to ensure patients can be offloaded by ambulance crews, even if they fear they do not have adequate staffing or beds to accept them. One senior source at NWAS said: “To see a new protocol like this is absolutely unprecedented. I very much doubt the execs had approved it. “We’ve had Mexican standoff situations over the weekend with crews who have brought patients into ED being told to take them back out to their vehicles, but they’ve refused to do this as it means they cannot cohort. “We completely accept that taking extra patients means the ED and hospital staff have to deal with additional and unacceptable risk, but holding ambulances is not the solution because the risks to patients out in the community are even greater. Despite repeated instructions from NHS England and the CQC this still doesn’t seem to be understood.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 17 October 2022
  11. News Article
    Staff at accident and emergency departments across Scotland have expressed “deep concern” at the daily “excessively long waiting times” that are forcing a record number of patients to wait more than 12 hours, according to a leading NHS consultant. Dr John-Paul Loughrey, vice-chair of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Scotland national board, warned that while such long waits were once regarded as “never events,” they are now daily occurrences. Amid fears the delays will spike significantly over the winter months, especially with another wave of Covid-19 expected, Dr Loughrey said staff were already “burned out,” “exhausted,” and “overwhelmed with a system facing increasing strain.” The latest weekly data on A&E treatment shows that in the week ending 2 October, the number of patients waiting more than 12 hours had soared by 45% week-on-week. “There is deep concern among staff around the excessively long waiting times,” Dr Loughrey said. “The weekly data that show significant increases in long waits translates to real patients on the ground or in the community who are seeking urgent and emergency care. “The system is failing them. We know that long waiting times are associated with patient harm and even death. Staff face moral injury daily, but they are working incredibly hard and doing all they can to minimise this harm to patients.” Read full story Source: The Scotsman, 16 October 2022
  12. News Article
    The blood-donation service has been inundated with offers of help after putting out an alert, on Wednesday, warning NHS stocks were running critically low in England. More than 10,000 appointments to donate blood over the next few weeks have been booked in the past 24 hours. The NHS usually has six days' worth of blood to use for operations and transfusions but levels are currently due to fall below two. Type-O blood is in particular demand. O positive is the most common and anyone can receive O negative in an emergency or if their blood type is unknown. Blood supplies have been challenging since the Covid pandemic, because of staff shortages and sickness, and a change in people's behaviour means they are less likely to visit donation centres in towns and cities, according to NHSBT. Individual hospitals must decide how to manage the shortage - for example, by postponing some non-urgent operations. "This is an amazing response from the public and we have been reminded in the last 24 hours of the incredible goodwill and spirit of the public towards helping patients in times of great difficulty," an NHSBT official said. Read full story Source: BBC News, 13 October 2022
  13. News Article
    The number of people waiting for hospital treatment with the NHS in England has topped 7 million for the first time in August. Other unwelcome records were recorded elsewhere, with just 56.9% of patients attending major A&Es in September seen within four hours – a record low. Just 72.9% of patients received their first treatment for cancer within two months after seeing a consultant while one-month waits for radiotherapy also reached a new low at 90.5% of patients against a target of 94%. The service failed to meet seven out of eight of its stated cancer targets. The number of patients waiting more than a year for treatment grew to 387,257 by the end of August, up from 377,689 the month before, equivalent to one in every 18 patients on the waiting list. Eighteen-month waits fell from the high of 123,969 in September 2021 but still affect 50,888. The latest data, covering August or September depending on the metric, shows that the NHS is under increasing pressure even before winter begins. There are currently 10,522 patients in hospital with Covid, double the number seen last month (4,630 on 13 September). On Wednesday, the NHS warned that hospitals in England may be forced to cancel operations to protect their stocks because of staff shortages. The service pointed to successes elsewhere, saying the number of people waiting 18 months for treatment continues to fall and was almost 60% lower in August as compared with the same month last year (121,711) and noting that 255,055 people received an NHS cancer check following an urgent GP referral in August – the highest number since records began. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 13 October 2022
  14. News Article
    Senior doctors have sent a warning over the “shambles” of heart attack care after pressures on the NHS have left patients waiting eight hours for an ambulance. The caution comes as several hospitals in the past week have declared critical incidents over the level of pressure on their emergency care services. Portsmouth Hospital said on Monday: “Demand for an emergency response is far outstripping the capacity available in Portsmouth and South East Hampshire at this time.” Professor Mama Mamas, a consultant cardiologist in Stoke and Professor of Cardiology at Keele University, told The Independent: “I was on call this weekend and I was seeing delays of eight hours. It was several people, three or four this weekend with heart attacks that waited between four and eight hours … it’s a national disgrace that we’re in this situation. “I think that patient care is being compromised. We know that time is muscle and an eight-hour delay getting an ambulance to a patient with a heart attack is impacting on the survival levels.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 13 October 2022
  15. News Article
    The push to tackle the hospital backlog is being undermined by the struggle to get services back to full strength. A BBC analysis shows the expected surge in new patients has not yet happened. Instead, the waiting list in England is growing because the NHS is carrying out fewer operations and treatments than it was before Covid, despite a government push to boost capacity. Surgeons said it was really frustrating as operating theatres were not being used due to a lack of beds and staff. They say it is not unusual to find surgery cancelled at the last minute as staff are unavailable or intensive care and ward beds are full with other patients. "It's tough on patients and tough on staff who want to get on and treat patients," said Tim Mitchell, vice-president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. "Without treatment, the health of patients can deteriorate. Not only do we need to get back to where we were before the pandemic, we need to do more if we are going to tackle the backlog." Read full story Source: BBC News, 13 October 2022
  16. News Article
    The NHS has declared its first-ever amber alert over blood supplies, which have fallen to critically low levels. The alert means some non-urgent operations that require blood are likely to be impacted, with hospitals advised to swap in other surgeries which do not require blood. A letter is due to go out to hospitals on Wednesday, The Independent was told. Hospitals will be asked to make individual decisions over whether to postpone surgeries such as hip replacements but will continue to carry out urgent surgeries and blood transfusions for those with long term conditions. The “amber-alert” will last for four weeks initially, NHS Blood and Transplant has said. Wendy Clark, interim chief of NHS Blood and Transplant said: “Asking hospitals to limit their use of blood is not a step we take lightly. This is a vital measure to protect patients who need blood the most. “Patients are our focus. I sincerely apologise to those patients who may see their surgery postponed because of this." “With the support of hospitals and the measures we are taking to scale up collection capacity, we hope to be able to build stocks back to a more sustainable footing." Read full story Source: The Independent, 12 October 2022
  17. News Article
    Social care services face an “absolute crisis” over record vacancies as unfilled jobs have risen by more than 50% in a year, a new analysis reveals. New data on social care workers shows at least 165,000 vacancies across adult social care providers at the end of 2021-22. This is the highest on record according to the charity Skills for Care, which has collected the data since 2012. Leading think tanks have warned the figures to point to the “absolute crisis” facing social care with the “system on its knees”. At the same time the demand for care has risen, highlighting that social care is facing a complex challenge with recruitment and retention which will be impacting on the lives of people who need social care. The annual report by Skills for Care predicts social care services will need an extra 480,000 workers by 2035 to meet the demand but could be set to lose 430,000 staff to retirement over the next decade. Simon Bottery, senior fellow at The King’s Fund, said the report was evidence “of the absolute crisis social care faces when trying to recruit staff, a crisis that has profound consequences for people needing care”. He added: “A key reason for that is pay, which continues to lag behind other sectors including retail and hospitality, as well as similar roles in the NHS. Our recent analysis found that nearly 400,000 care workers would be better paid to work in most supermarkets." Read full story Source: The Independent, 11 October 2022
  18. News Article
    NHS trusts may be forced to cancel appointments and limit visiting times in a Covid and flu “twindemic” this winter, health leaders have warned. Fears have been raised the viruses could strip back the workforce and further increase demand for services during an already busy period. It comes amid rising Covid infections in the UK. Around 1.3 million tested positive in late September, according to the latest figures, which was a 25% increase on the week before. The UK is also concerned there could be a bad flu season this year, with lower immunity across the population due to reduced exposure in the Covid pandemic. NHS leaders have warned that this background could make winter even more difficult for the health service. “I make no bones about this: we know it’s going to be a pressurised time for trusts over the next four months if not longer,” Saffron Cordery from NHS Providers, which represents trusts in England, told The Independent. The interim chief executive added: “We’re worried about Covid and we’re worried about flu.” Ms Cordery said these joint pressures – which could increase demand, strip back workforces and introduce the need for greater infection control measures – could have a knock-on effect on services. “We need to anticipate that there may well be cancellations for either outpatient appointments or routine procedures or operations, because there could be staff shortages or rising demand in emergency care – that means that those routine appointments cannot take place as quickly as we’d like,” she said. Read full story Source: The Independent, 8 October 2022
  19. News Article
    Nurses will start voting on Thursday on whether to strike over pay amid warnings that record numbers are leaving the profession. Around 300,000 members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) are being asked if they want to mount a campaign of industrial action in the union’s first UK-wide ballot. The RCN said new analysis by London Economics to coincide with the ballot launch showed that pay for nurses has declined at twice the rate of the private sector in the last decade. It is the first time in its 106-year history that the RCN has balloted members across the UK on strike action and it is urging them to vote in favour. RCN general secretary Pat Cullen said in a message to those being balloted: “This is a once-in-a-generation chance to improve your pay and combat the staff shortages that put patients at risk. “Governments have repeatedly neglected the NHS and the value of nursing. We can change this if together we say ‘enough is enough’. “Record numbers are feeling no alternative but to quit and patients pay a heavy price. We are doing this for them too." Read full story Source: The Independent, 6 October 2022
  20. News Article
    Several ambulance trusts have moved to the highest level of alert in the wake of severe pressure on emergency services in recent days. Internal data seen by HSJ suggests ambulance response times have deteriorated dramatically, while the average time for call handlers to answer 999 calls has increased to almost two minutes in some areas. Staff across the country have been sounding the alarm over the pressures, with one senior source saying the situation was “really dire” again, after a period in which pressures had eased in August and September. The internal data showed ambulance trusts in the South West, East of England, London and the West Midlands had all declared the highest level of alert, known as REAP 4. More are expected to follow. The average response time for category 2 calls in the South West – including suspected heart attacks and strokes – was 1 hour 24 minutes, with 10% of these calls responded to in more than 3 hours 11 minutes. The target is 18 minutes. Emergency departments have also faced severe pressure. An emergency care consultant in Plymouth tweeted that patients were facing 70-hour waits to be admitted to wards, with some waiting 18 hours to be handed over by ambulance staff. Fionna Lowe added: “I have taken to asking families to feed their relatives. It has never been this bad.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 4 October 2022
  21. News Article
    A young teenager with complex needs in local authority care has been deprived of their liberty and held in hospital for several months because no secure placement could be found anywhere in England, a family court has heard. General hospitals are not registered to provide secure accommodation for children in this situation, and do not have the specialist staff required to provide the care and therapeutic input needed. High court judges have repeatedly raised concerns that children in urgent need of secure accommodation are waiting months to find a place, to the detriment of their mental health. England has an acute shortage of secure therapeutic placements for children with severe emotional and psychological needs. Government figures published in March show there are just 132 spaces in secure homes for children with urgent and complex needs. On any given day, about 50 children – twice as many as in the previous 12 months – were seeking a placement. About 30 children – an increase of a third on the previous 12-month period – end up placed hundreds of miles from home in Scotland due to the lack of available secure units in England. A Department for Education spokesperson said: “All children and young people deserve to grow up in stable, loving homes, and local authorities have a statutory duty to ensure that there are enough places for their looked-after children. “We are supporting local authorities through providing £259m to maintain capacity and expand provision in secure and open children’s homes. “This will provide high quality, safe homes for some of our most vulnerable children. It will mean children can live closer to their families, schools, and health services, in settings that meet their needs.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 4 October 2022
  22. News Article
    Underperforming hospitals face special measures before what ministers warn will be one of the worst winters in the history of the NHS. Thérèse Coffey, the health secretary, told a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference that there was too much “variation in what patients experience” as her department plans to impose closer control on failing hospitals. Robert Jenrick, the NHS minister, said that the government “shouldn’t be tolerant of those parts of the NHS which are underperforming” and had demanded quicker improvement from more than a dozen hospitals. He acknowledged that NHS staff were overstretched in the aftermath of the pandemic, saying that he wanted to “put boosterism to one side” and accept that the shortage of doctors and nurses was the biggest problem facing the health service. However, he also questioned why some hospitals were doing so poorly when other nearby hospitals with similar problems were seeing much shorter waits. “A very striking dynamic is the variability that we see within the NHS and I think this is where we as Conservatives have a message, which is that we shouldn’t be tolerant of those parts of the NHS which are underperforming.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 4 October 2022
  23. News Article
    Every hospital in the UK is under significant pressure and a new Covid surge is “a very heavy straw on the camel’s back”, health leaders have warned. At least eight hospitals declared a critical incident, cancelled operations or asked people not to come to A&E unless they were seriously ill last week. One of Britain’s most senior emergency doctor said there were links between incidents like these and the rapid rise in hospitalisations for Covid, up nearly 37% in a week to 7,024. While the Office for National Statistics said it was too early to say if an autumn Covid wave had begun, health leaders said ministers need to urgently address staffing shortages. Dr Adrian Boyle, the incoming president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine told the Observer: “Our system is under-resourced. We don’t have enough beds, and we don’t have the workforce for the demand that we’re being asked to deal with. “Covid just makes everything that much harder and it’s entirely valid to link this with critical incidents being called around the country. All hospitals are feeling significant levels of pressure at the moment. Covid is a very heavy straw on the camel’s back.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 1 October 2022
  24. News Article
    Only a handful of integrated care systems have so far managed to implement a key expansion in their support for patients in mental health crisis. Internal NHS England documents, seen by HSJ, suggest that only 7 out of 42 health systems have begun offering enhanced mental health crisis support through the 111 helpline. This was a key target set out by the NHS long term plan in 2019, to be fully rolled out by next year. Some areas of the country have implemented the expansion, but others are lagging well behind, the document suggests. Currently, all areas offer separate 24/7 all-age crisis lines run by individual mental health trusts, offering brief psychological interventions and advice. But HSJ has been told of national problems affecting the existing helplines, with callers facing long waits. In a recent review, Healthwatch England said the services are having to “pick and choose” who to help because of high demand, which in effect led to “service rationing”. Siân Balsom manager for Healthwatch York, said: “People are overwhelmingly positive about the NHS. But there’s an acceptance that crisis support is not going to be there for people. That feels like a really bad place to be in. “We know people in the voluntary sector feel like they are holding people they don’t have the skills and experience to support. [They] feel they are holding people in the wrong service because the right service is not there for them. “People are trying to do a good job, but the system is more under pressure than it has ever been and there are clearly a lot of people who are experiencing significant mental illness who are not able to get support right there and then.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 3 October 2022
  25. News Article
    Patients with suspected skin and breast cancer have experienced the largest increase in waiting times of everyone urgently referred to a cancer specialist, with 1 in 20 patients now facing the longest waits, analysis of NHS England data shows. Almost 10,000 patients referred by a GP to a cancer specialist had to wait for more than 28 days in July – double the supposed maximum 14-day waiting time. Three-quarters of them were suspected of having skin, breast or lower gastrointestinal cancer, a Guardian analysis has revealed. In total, 53,000 people in England waited more than two weeks to see a cancer specialist. That is 22% of all the patients urgently referred for a cancer appointment by their GPs. Minesh Patel, head of policy at Macmillan Cancer Support, said people were waiting “far too long for diagnosis or vital treatment”. Patients “are worried about the impact of these delays on their prognosis and quality of care”. “The NHS has never worked harder,” said Matt Sample, the policy manager at Cancer Research UK, but patients dealing with long waits “reflects a broader picture of some of the worst waits for tests and treatments on record”. “When just a matter of weeks can be enough for some cancers to progress, this is unacceptable.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 2 October 2022
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