Almost 1.4million UK cancer patients let down by ‘postcode lottery’ of care, damning report reveals
Almost 1.4million cancer patients in the UK have been let down by a ‘postcode lottery’ of care, a damning report reveals.
Four in ten people living with the disease (40 per cent) say they struggled to get the most suitable treatment simply because of where they live.
Macmillan Cancer Support warns this unfair variation – likened to ‘flipping a coin’ – is leaving some people with fewer treatment options and little choice but to travel long distances for the treatment they need.
Many face increased costs, stress, anxiety and exhaustion as a result, the charity added.
More than one in three patients (36 per cent) have travelled over an hour for a test, scan or treatment and 3 per cent – equivalent to 100,000 patients – have put their life at risk and turned down an appointment because it was so far away.
Meanwhile, an estimated 60,000 more people each year across the UK would get faster cancer care if waiting times nationwide matched the best performing areas, according to Macmillan’s analysis of NHS data.
It said there are inconsistencies in the availability of well-established cancer treatments as well as innovative new ones, including personalised medicines that require biomarker testing.
This is likely to be having an impact on survival chances and the quality of life of survivors, it adds.
Four in ten people living with the disease (40 per cent) say they struggled to get the most suitable treatment simply because of where they live
Dr Anthony Cunliffe, lead medical adviser at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: ‘As a GP, the fact that where you live can have such a huge impact on your cancer experience really does worry me.
‘But the reality is that for too many people with cancer it has begun to feel like a game of chance – a “flip of a coin” and a need to be “in the right place, at the right time” – when it comes to getting the treatment and care they need.
‘We need to see urgent action taken to make cancer care fair.
‘Everyone with cancer should get the best possible care the UK has to offer.
‘Everyone should get the treatment that is right for them.
‘No-one should get left behind simply because of where they live.
‘At Macmillan, we are trying to bring UK decision-makers, people with cancer and local communities together to make sure that well-established cancer treatments and tests are made equally available to everyone.’
Macmillan commissioned YouGov to survey 2,002 adult cancer patients in the UK about the standard of their care and analysed separate NHS figures.
Dr Anthony Cunliffe, lead medical adviser at Macmillan Cancer Support
One patient, named Daisy, was 17 when she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in February.
She had to make a four to six-hour round trip to a specialist centre in Liverpool for care as her treatment could not take place in North Wales due to her age.
‘Whilst the support I got in Liverpool was fantastic, things would have been so different if I didn’t have my mum, who eventually had to stop work for a while to do everything and support me through my treatment,’ she said.
‘Sometimes we would be making the trip from Anglesey to Liverpool and back as many times as three times a week – feeling sick in the car, worried if I would get ill at home, worried about infections or reactions to my treatment, and worry that if anything did go wrong, the only option I might have would be go to my local A&E, which could mean long waiting times.’
An NHS England spokesperson said: ;The NHS is seeing and treating more people with cancer than ever before, survival rates have never been higher, and we have delivered the first increase in early diagnosis of the disease in over a decade.
‘But we know patients’ experience can vary, and we are working closely with government on the National Cancer Plan to ensure everyone gets the highest possible standard of care, no matter where they live.’
