Cancer care across the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) was already at “crisis level” before the emergence of COVID-19, due to a shortage of specialist nurses that left thousands of sick patients short of crucial, potentially life-saving support. The Independent reports that data from Macmillan Cancer Support has shown that prior to the pandemic – which has disrupted the diagnosis, treatment and care of millions of cancer patients in the UK – the NHS in England was short of 2,500 cancer nurses, placing immense strains on a chronically overstretched workforce while depriving patients of their full treatment.
This gap in staff means the average cancer nurse would need to work almost double (84%) their contracted hours to provide the appropriate care for patients. The impact of these shortages has been acutely felt among cancer patients, Macmillan added.
A YouGov survey of 2,000 people with cancer in the UK, carried out pre-lockdown, shows that one in five recently diagnosed patients in England (21%) had not received support from a specialist cancer nurse during either their diagnosis or their treatment. A further 5% had not received any support at all – equating to more than 80,000 of those diagnosed with cancer every year. One in five (22%) of those who did receive support said it was not enough to address their needs.
Macmillan’s research also found that 63% of those with cancer in England who say they didn’t get enough support from nurses were left uncertain about queries relating to the disease. This included not having their questions answered and being unsure how to take their medication, or which side effects to look out for.
The findings raise further questions of how the NHS, which is in the process of restarting non-COVID services, will tackle an extensive backlog of cancer cases.
An estimated 2.1m patients are awaiting screening for breast, cervical and bowel cancer, according to Cancer Research UK, while 290,000 have missed out on referrals to confirm or rule out the presence of tumours.
[link url="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/cancer-care-uk-coronavirus-pandemic-staff-shortages-b421867.html"]Full report in The Independent[/link]
[link url="https://www.macmillan.org.uk/_images/addressing-the-gap-report_tcm9-358808.pdf"]MacMillan Cancer Support research[/link]