As many as 100,000 patients had a cancer that was missed, or had their diagnoses or treatments delayed during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. That’s the shocking finding of a recent study by the Institute of Cancer Policy at King’s College London.
The experts conclude that some patients will already have died, many still haven’t been diagnosed and others will already have a more advanced cancer as a result of the delays. And it is likely this figure of 100,000 will continue to rise as more data from 2021 and early 2022 is analysed.
In other words, there could not be a more important time to fix cancer care in this country.
This week the government opened a consultation on its ten year cancer plan – part of its ‘national war on cancer’ – to reduce this cancer backlog. The plan aims to improve cancer care with earlier detection, a larger workforce and new technologies.
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