Call to give UK cancer patients legal right to be treated within two months

8 comments

1. We already have the right to be treated within two months, unfortunately the nhs doesn’t have the capacity to do it, all this will achieve is more people will be able to sue the nhs thus fucking it even further into non existence.

2. This is a pipe dream at best. Where would this extra money come from when they are already trying to cull 25% of the current workforce? Mental health services are crippled, outpatient wait times are through the roof, surgery wait times are through the roof. The NHS on the whole is struggling and while I get the data is there to back up survival rates relating to quicker treatment periods, noone is delayed for any reason beyond capacity 99% of the time. Cancer patients are constantly on the ASAP timeline for everything from blood tests, to scans, to surgeries. But there is a massive in flow that has to exist alongside the massive demand for non-cancer related patients.

   I can only speak for Urology, and more specifically Urology within my trust but my doctors pretty consistently have to run adhoc clinics to meet all the targets but even getting these approved is a massive ballache as the trust doesn’t really want to pay them to be there (insane I know, but that’s how it is). There is also a indirect consequence of people living longer post-diagnosis in that there is an ever growing list of patients that require follow-up which add on even more to the demand of the services (blood tests, scans, biopsies and telephone reviews). 

   I honestly would not be surprised to see the 62 day pathway to be assessed and changed to be something closer to 80 days as not hitting the target in 10 years is a clear indicator you’re asking too much of the system currently in place. 

   And my site is relatively small at the end of the day, if we move to something like skin or breast with 2-3x the patients incoming how are the services supposed to keep up. 

   I think articles like these are usually written by people that have never worked or even spoken to anyone working in the service because you would know that even the private sector at the moment is dealing with wait times that are all over the place. 

   Final note: the right to be forgotten is fair enough honestly. 5 years in remission should be reasonable enough for it to not be hiking up life/travel insurance etc

   EDIT: reading back, adding the ability for a patient to sue the NHS for lack of treatment is just a slippery slide to a legal nightmare. How do you decide if progression was just meant to be biologically or due to clinician delays. Once again though, where is this money coming from

3. Hopefully the NHS can use this to help secure adequate funding going forward.

   All whilst paying doctors and nurses a fraction of what they’d make in America, Australia, or even the middle-east. Yea, the middle-east.

4. Also, vote reform to be stripped of your ECHRights so we can StopTheBoats™

5. I don’t understand how it’s so bad in the UK. The UK has 4 doctors per 1,000 people and Japan 2.6 per 1,000 people, yet Japan has no wait times.

   I live in Japan. Tuesday at 2pm I was having pain in my neck. I walked into a clinic (not booked literally walked in) and saw a doctor within 30 minutes of going to this clinic (I had never been before) he checked my symptoms, and gave me antibiotics and said if it persists by Friday come straight back.

   This is how it works. You can book appointments online anytime no phone call needed, there are many clinics open Saturday and Sunday, some are open as late as 9/10pm.

   Dentists are no different. Saturday had agonizing toothache couldn’t sleep, reserved a dentist appointment at 10am Sunday (for a dentist I had never been to as mine wasn’t open), walked into and within 1 hour I was walking out. In that time he did a full x ray, began a root canal immediately and removed the pulp. Went home pain free, never appointment is next Sunday.

   It gets better want an MRI? You can walk in today and get one done, want to see a gynecologist? You can do that and it’s the same for Oncology, Dermatology, Orthopedics etc

   Japan takes a preventive approach to medicine whereas the UK has a reactive approach. The community in the UK actively works against preventive treatment or care, there is a belief that someone should only be treated once they have been tested and they should only be tested once they show symptoms. The issues with a lot of conditions when you show symptoms is when the damage is being done and your outcome worsens.

   I got diagnosed in Japan with heart disease, showed no symptoms. In the UK I would not have been tested until I showed symptoms and with my condition that means damage has been done already to my heart and my expectancy begins to drop, then consider how long it would take to see a cardiologist and get tested and then surgery scheduled? I’d be cutting years if not decades off my life due to reactive ideology.

6. A rule isn’t going to change anything only action can do that. All this ‘target’ nonsense when something clearly isn’t working. I can set myself a target to fly to mars by flapping my arms quickly it doesn’t mean I’ll get there.

7. If you do this private clinics will ram all their prices up and milk the NHS for every penny, considering the British public don’t want to pay for anything I don’t see how that’s affordable.

8. Wait, so if you’re diagnosed with cancer you could be waiting months to get treatment for it? That’s terrifying

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