UK Coronavirus: Janet Street-Porter Says Bureaucrats Block NHS

Covid-19 is a plague that affects millions of people. In the UK, everyone knows or knows someone who has died and our lives have changed dramatically for the foreseeable future.

This terrible crisis has brought out the best in the British, while the Americans angrily demonstrate their right to be infected because many value making money to save lives, in the UK an army of volunteers is helping the isolated and vulnerable.

Companies have stepped up to offer their expertise to produce urgently needed protective clothing and fans, while restaurants and pubs offer free food to those in need. Across the UK, communities come together to raise funds for “our” NHS.

Undoubtedly, the NHS staff is doing a fantastic job and many of them show incredible bravery on the front line. But others could be doing much more if only bureaucrats allowed it.

“Our” NHS is in crisis because consecutive governments overwhelmed it with cumbersome bureaucracy, while key services lacked sufficient funds along with front-line staff.

Politicians from all parties have refrained from introducing a specific health care tax, with which most voters agree. An unfortunate Minister of Health and an army of scientists are making their way through a crisis, which fortunately seems to be waning.

But the consequences of the pandemic will continue for years and lead to thousands of unnecessary deaths, people who have never contracted the coronavirus.

I am talking about cancer patients. This week, a study published in the European Journal of Cancer, conducted by three distinguished universities in London, Belfast and Split, Croatia, concludes that we are facing a cancer epidemic, with more deaths preventable by cancer than by Covid-19.

The reason is simple: In the rush to focus on halting the dire number of coronavirus deaths, UK medical experts temporarily decided to “forget” about cancer victims, thousands of people who had already started treatments like chemotherapy.

The big wigs of the NHS decided to ‘forget’ about the intestinal, mammary and cervical patients who were waiting for exams to see if they had the disease and, if so, how far it had progressed, people who had already waited months to be referred to specialists. by their GPs.

Cancer affects more people in the UK than coronavirus. Half of us will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in our lives, according to Cancer Research UK. Four hundred and fifty people die every day from the disease, 165,000 a year.

If detected early, half of those diagnosed will live more than ten years, and a great deal of work in diagnosis and treatment is seeing survival rates increase. A clever campaign and extensive NHS testing mean prostate and bowel cancers are no longer an embarrassing secret.

Thousands of new cancer cases are diagnosed every day, at least in the UK, before the coronavirus diverted our attention and all resources. Okay, NHS clinical director Peter Johnson urges the public to contact our GP if we feel sick or have troubling symptoms, but what happens then? Take a couple of paracetamol and wait for a suspicious new lump to shrink on its own?

Not a day goes by when I don’t think about cancer and how it has affected the people I love. My sister died of brain and lung cancer, and one of my closest friends is battling a rare form of lung cancer, and has had several episodes of surgery. Just before closing, a biopsy confirmed that he had cancerous growth on his face. The surgery has been canceled for the foreseeable future, so I am concerned, despite being told that my condition was “not life threatening”.

I can’t imagine the horror for breast, bowel, and lung cancer patients whose treatment has been out of control. Even after the lockout ends, it can take 6 to 9 months for services to return to normal. Experts say that a delay in bowel cancer screening can be a death sentence. So why do we care more about covid-19 than a disease that could affect (and potentially kill) half of us?

Cancer charities say donations have plummeted: all we are thinking about is coronavirus and fundraising for the wonderful NHS.

According to expert expert Karl Sikora (former director of the World Health Organization’s cancer program), the NHS decision to stop screening, delay surgery and postpone chemotherapy will lead to far more deaths than the coronavirus in the coming years Up to 50,000 victims could have had a good chance of life, if they had been promptly diagnosed and treated.

According to Professor Sikora, cancer patients are “collateral damage” in the current war against the virus.

Surely underused Nightingale hospitals could be converted to chemotherapy and screening facilities for cancer patients, and could minor surgery be performed in sterile areas?

It is scandalous that these facilities remain empty white elephants at a time when cancer patients are concerned about whether their lives are at risk. Simply put, for many cancer victims, death has come much closer.

Since the NHS has also co-opted many hospitals and private facilities to deal with the virus, why, now that the spike has passed, can they not be used to resume abandoned cancer treatments?

The TikTok video of the NHS nurses dancing can be entertaining, but it won’t be as much fun for anyone who watches it with advanced bowel or breast cancer. Cancer victims pay the same taxes as everyone else, so why have they been put in the queue for medical services?

If Boris Johnson and company need help with their plans to get out of the lockdown, why not start with the NHS itself? At the moment, “our” NHS only serves one type of client.