A UK CHARITY has called on the Chancellor, George Osborne to increase funding for diagnostic services of cancer patients within the NHS.
The UK’s leading cancer charity Cancer Research UK experts have said the state of cancer testing and surveillance services within the NHS is “deeply concerning”.
Two reports prepared for the charity show obvious gaps. They identify the NHS is struggling to provide timely test for thousands of patients as the increase in demand for such services continues for a growing and aging population.
Sara Hiom, Cancer Research UK’s director for early diagnosis, said: New GP referral guidelines from the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) – aimed at lowering the threshold at which patients can be referred for tests for suspected cancer – would drive higher demand in the future.
There are only nine CT and seven MRI scanners per million people in the UK- this is only half the amount of Spain and even less than Germany and France. According to the charity, most of the imaging equipment in the UK is in need of renewal and will cost an estimate of £215million to replace.
She added:“GPs do not have the access they need and that means patients are waiting too long for tests, this has to change if doctors are to diagnose more people with cancer earlier.
“The state of NHS diagnostic services is deeply concerning, there aren’t enough trained staff, they’re often reliant on outdated equipment and in many cases they’re already operating services seven days a week.”
A second report displays that by 2020 a prediction of more than 750,000 endoscopy services (the procedures which investigate and helps diagnose bowel, gastrointestinal and oesophageal cancers) will be needed to be carried out each year.
Sean Duffy, the national clinical director for cancer at NHS England, said: “The independent Cancer Taskforce report has highlighted the need for improvements in cancer diagnostics in order to save lives, and NHS England is working with others across the health service on how to deliver these recommendations.
“Catching more cancers early will ultimately mean more patients surviving and leading full lives. It is critical that patients spot symptoms early and GPs make sure they are sent for diagnostic tests quickly.”
In 2013, approximately 280,000 new cancer diagnoses were made in England alone. This figure is continuing to rise. The governments target of 85 per cent of cancer patients to receive specialist treatment during 62 days of being referred by GP’s has not been met for over a year and a half.
A Department of Health spokesperson said: “We want the NHS to be the best in the world at helping people with cancer and we invested an extra £750m to improve treatment and early diagnosis in the last five years. Survival rates are at a record high and diagnostic activity across the NHS is up by around a third since 2010, but we know there is more to do.”
In one of the reports, published on 6 September, the research agency 2020 Delivery says cancer diagnostic imaging activity has been growing at nearly 6 per cent a year for a decade. Demand for CT scans and MRI scans is expected to grow even faster in the future increasing nine per cent each year.
A Department of Health spokesperson said: “We want the NHS to be the best in the world at helping people with cancer and we invested an extra £750m to improve treatment and early diagnosis in the last five years. Survival rates are at a record high and diagnostic activity across the NHS is up by around a third since 2010, but we know there is more to do.”
Figures of professional staff are still worrying as the UK only has a total of 48 radiographers, radiologists and sonographers- (who deliver cancer imaging services) per million people. In contrast to other countries the number of staff is very low. Germany has 92 radiologists per million, Spain- 112 and France 130 according to reports from the Royal College of Radiologists.