Andrew RT Davies MS – the Shadow Health Minister – has cautioned that the latest set of hospital referral and time-to-treatment figures released today (August 20) are no cause for celebration, despite improvements compared to recent months.
Mr Davies, a Welsh Conservative, said:
“On the face of it, the figures for June look great. An increase of 41 percent for the number of people entering the Single Cancer Pathway1, and an increase of 44 percent for outpatient referrals, for example, but these are just in comparison to the previous month.
“Compare these statistics to June 2019, and they tell a different story. The same waiting times I referred to are down an incredible 27 percent and staggering 39 percent respectively, when compared to last year.
“According to a recent report from Bowel Cancer UK2, five-year survival rates for those diagnosed with cancer this year could fall from 16.2 percent to 15.4 percent for lung cancer, 85 percent to 83.5 percent for breast cancer, and from 58.4 percent to 51.6 percent for colorectal cancer.
“Some might argue that 0.8 percent is not much of a drop, but it’s not just an arbitrary figure: that 0.8 percent refers to people’s lives.
“We’re facing a perfect storm of fewer GP referrals, pauses in screening, and delays and cancellation to diagnostics and treatments. The pandemic will cause more deaths not because people have contracted Covid-19, but because of delays in diagnosing and treating cancer and a range of other conditions.
“As a matter of urgency, the Health Minister must pull his finger out and detail what he is going to do to address this potential health crisis, and when, starting with the publication of a detailed recovery plan for cancer services and a public information campaign to press home the message that GPs and the NHS in Wales are open for all.”
Mr Davies commented earlier in the week on the "Covid Control Plan". Read his statement here.
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