- GPs are urged to slash number of patients they send for tests, report warns
- This is despite doctors wanting screenings in hope of catching cancer early
- Waiting times for surgery and other treatment ‘at their highest in four years’
- Cancer Research UK interviewed doctors in the health service for the reportÂ
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Cutting costs: Doctors are being urged to cut costs by slashing the number of patients they send for cancer tests, a report by Cancer Research UK warns
Doctors are being urged to cut costs by slashing the number of patients they send for cancer tests, a charity warns.
GPs are being told by NHS bosses to reduce referral rates despite wanting more patients screened in the hope that the disease will be picked up at an earlier stage.
A report by Cancer Research UK says waiting times for treatment are at their highest in four years.
Almost 10,000 waited at least two months from being referred by their GP to surgery, medication or chemotherapy in the first half of 2014.
This means the NHS has breached its target of ensuring that 85 per cent of patients are treated within this time frame – it now stands at 84.4 per cent.
The charity warns that the cash-strapped health service is struggling to cope with the rising numbers with cancer.
More than 331,000 Britons were diagnosed with the disease last year, up by a quarter compared with the 1970s.
The report warns that unless the NHS invests more money in cancer, waiting times will rise further – which could lead to a drop in survival rates.
Harpal Kumar, Cancer Research UK’s chief executive, said: ‘In many ways, NHS cancer services have held up remarkably well.
‘Staff have bravely dug-in and done their best in the face of overwhelming change, increased demand, squeezed budgets and fragmented leadership. But that cannot continue indefinitely.
‘More people are surviving cancer than ever before – survival rates in the UK have doubled in the last 40 years because research is delivering better diagnosis and treatments.
‘But the number of cases is also going up as the UK population ages.
‘This combination means we’ll be diagnosing more people, treating more people and helping more people recover from cancer in coming decades.
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Treatment: Almost 10,000 patients waited at least two months from being referred by their GP to surgery, medication or chemotherapy in the first half of 2014 (file picture)
‘The NHS will need to be fit to meet that purpose and that needs increased investment, planning and leadership now.’
The charity interviewed doctors who said they were being discouraged by NHS clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) – which organise delivery of services – from referring too many patients for tests to diagnose cancer.
One GP said: ‘We’re trying to get people diagnosed earlier, which means an increased referral rate from primary care. You’ve got to increase referral rates to get people in at an early stage of disease.
‘The CCG mantra is exactly opposite of that. You have to reduce your referral rate.’
And one hospital manager warned that there might soon be a shortage of beds and nurses for patients needing chemotherapy.
Mike Hobday, director of policy and research at Macmillan Cancer Support, said cancer services were in a state of ‘utter confusion and uncertainty’.
But Sean Duffy, national clinical director for cancer at NHS England, said: ‘The NHS is successfully seeing 50 per cent more patients than four years ago and survival rates have never been higher.
‘Almost nine out of ten patients say their care is excellent or very good.’
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