Delaying the UK government’s mandate for medical treatment during the pandemic will cost thousands of lives

Delaying the UK government’s mandate for medical treatment during the pandemic will cost thousands of lives

By
Jean gibney

May 2, 2020

Thousands of deaths are expected due to delays in referrals and treatment for cancer and other life-threatening diseases in the UK, as the National Health Service (NHS) is overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases. Referrals, scans, diagnoses and urgently needed treatments are postponed, putting more lives at risk in addition to the devastating toll of coronavirus.

New research from University College London and Data-Can, a health data research center for cancer diagnosis and treatment, suggests that more than 107,400 people will die of cancer over the next year, nearly 18,000 additional cancer deaths from what that would be expected without the pandemic. . These include vulnerable patients who contract COVID-19 and those who die due to delays in treatment.

Researchers who analyzed data from cancer centers across the country found that there was a 76 percent drop in urgent referrals from GPs for patients with suspected cancer compared to pre-COVID-19 levels. The conclusions were based on data from the health records of more than 3.5 million patients in England.

Specialized health services are forced to postpone urgently needed referrals, scans, diagnoses and treatments, putting more lives at risk in addition to the devastating number of coronaviruses.

The NHS has suffered decades of cuts and privatization of services by Labor and Conservative governments. Along with the criminal lack of pandemic preparedness, this has caused more than 27,000 deaths from COVID-19. The actual number is very likely to exceed 40,000 due to the systematic lack of reports of coronavirus-related deaths by the Johnson government.

The United Kingdom is one of several countries that has suspended elective treatments due to the severe shortage of intensive care units. [ICU] They have resulted in the use of operating rooms such as ICUs to cope with the influx of patients with COVID-19.

According to the Royal College of Surgeons, more than 2 million operations were canceled as the NHS released 12,000 beds for patients killed by COVID-19.

A trusted Berkshire hospital released a statement postponing all non-COVID-19 treatments, including surgery and chemotherapy. The suspension included urgent face-to-face and telephone consultations.

Queen’s Hospital in East London released a statement suspending all surgeries and routine cancer chemotherapy for a minimum of two weeks.

Speaking to ITV News, cancer patient Beth Purvis expressed the anguish of all those whose life-saving surgery has been canceled and are now facing a long wait for treatment. She said: “The uncertainty with cancer is bad enough, and then having this in the mix. I feel completely lost and totally in limbo right now. “

Gethin Williams, a colorectal surgeon at Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport, Wales, told the Lancet medical journal stating that cancer treatments were suspended and that “without treatment some cancers could obstruct and some metastasize.”

The National Health Service of England warned of the impact of COVID-19 in patients undergoing radical radiotherapy and chemotherapy. For people with cancers, including lung blood cancers, if they become infected with the coronavirus, “different types of cancer produce immune suppression to different degrees.”

As referrals and treatments are delayed, doctors fear that lives that could have been saved are lost. Dr. Clive Peedell, NHS clinical oncologist consultant, told ITV News: “The cancer death rate will increase, what percentage I can’t say, would say a minimal 5 percent increase in cancer mortality …”

Barking, Havering, and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust, which runs King George Hospital in Goodmayes, and Queen’s Hospital in Romford, have suspended non-COVID-19 treatments and referrals for up to two weeks.

A report in the Daily mail stated that as hospitals in the area were overwhelmed with patients with COVID-19, NHS trusts were told to prioritize which patients to consider for chemotherapy and surgery lists based on estimated life expectancy and better survival rates. Those patients considered to have a very limited lifespan or to have little chance of survival will be placed at the bottom of the list.

Patients who would benefit from surgery are denied due to a lack of recovery beds and ventilated ICU beds. Sara Hiom, director of early cancer diagnosis and clinical engagement at Cancer Research UK, warned that disruption of cancer screening across the UK will have a disastrous impact on survival rates. Hiom raised the need for “post-peak planning” to “deal with the huge accumulation of cancer and all serious diseases after the first COVID-19 peak.”

Professor Richard Sullivan, director of the Institute for Cancer Policy at Kings College London, recently recommended that “the number of deaths due to interruption of cancer services is likely to exceed the number of deaths from the coronavirus in the next five years”.

The massive deaths that will occur as a result of the postponement of treatment are compounded by the government’s hypocritical and criminally dangerous mantra of “save lives, stay home, protect our NHS.” As the pandemic began to spread, the government instructed the population that mass testing was not necessary and that anyone with symptoms of coronavirus should stay home and “self-isolate.”

This has caused many people, including those who are seriously ill, to not go to the hospital for treatment for problems unrelated to COVID-19. In March, 1.53 million people attended Accident and Emergency (A&E) units across the country. This was the lowest attendance since records began and a 29 percent drop in 2.17 million assists in the same month last year.

According to Stephen Powers, medical director of NHS England, some of the patients with potential heart attacks and strokes do not seek medical help for not “wanting to disturb the NHS”. A&E attendance figures included a 50 percent drop in heart attack attendance.

Last month, the guardian revealed, based on access to the minutes of a London A&E leadership meeting, “that over the weekend of April 4-5, the number of 999 calls in which someone had suffered cardiac arrest increased from 55 per day during normal hours at 140. “

“Most of the affected people died.” The newspaper quoted doctors as saying. Professor Martin Marshall, president of the Royal College of GPs, “said doctors noticed an increase in the number of people dying in their homes, paramedics across the country said in interviews that they were taking more calls where patients were dead when they arrived. “

According to the Manchester Evening News , references to cancer decreased by two thirds since the COVID-19 outbreak. Attendance at A&E units at North Manchester General Hospital and Royal Oldham Hospital showed an 80 percent drop.

Some people who listen to government advice do not take their children to the hospital for fear of overwhelming the NHS. Professor Russel Viner, President of the Royal College of Pediatric Health, said: “We have recently heard reports of a small but worrying number of cases in which children may be very ill or even die because they were not seen early enough.”

Suspension of screenings and routine appointments is affecting all sectors of healthcare, including dentistry. NHS England announced the opening of 50 urgent dental care centers. General dental practitioners warned that “some patients who do not qualify for the referral may be at risk of developing life-threatening symptoms.”

Many workers are concerned about overloading an NHS with insufficient and excessively forced funds, while the private health care sector is doing everything possible to take advantage of the crisis. Much of the meager $ 5 billion in additional funding for the NHS and other services provided by the conservative government during the COVID-19 pandemic is being spent on increasing private sector profits.

the Health Services Journal He reported that NHS England had blockaded almost all of the resources of the private health sector, including personnel and equipment, to combat the pandemic. The total cost to the NHS has not been published.

the Meter He noted that the cost of renting beds from the private sector could be up to £ 2.4 million per day. There are reports from private health firms that inflate the costs of COVID-19 home test kits by as much as 67 percent.

Social media platforms abound with comments condemning private sector speculation. One comment said: “This crisis has revealed the enormous speculation that has taken place at the expense of the public for years.”

Another said: “Socialism for companies, capitalism for the majority.”

Liz Alderton, a district nurse team leader and Queen’s nurse, tweeted: “They evaluated 3 patients today, all newly diagnosed with cancer and all said they will not be considered for treatment due to COVID. They will all die sooner than they would have. These are the numbers that are not recorded. “

***

A reader sent the following letter to the WSWS about the delay in cancer treatment as a result of government policies on the coronavirus.

I had read on social media that [Health Secretary] Matt Hancock said that no cancer treatment would be affected by the coronavirus measures. That is an absolute lie. It has already happened.

My brother-in-law, Adrian, was scheduled for a laryngectomy on March 24, to remove his voice box, thyroid, and a lymph gland. So it wasn’t an emergency, but it was critical. The consultant called five days before surgery to tell Northwick Park Hospital. [in London] it had closed due to coronavirus cases and all cancer surgeries had been canceled. At the time, they simply couldn’t tell them what the next step would be.

They couldn’t reschedule the surgery, they couldn’t transfer him anywhere else in London, they didn’t put a tracheostomy tube to help him breathe in the meantime due to the increased risk of coronavirus infection, and they couldn’t just leave him alone because the tumor was still growing and blocking your airways.

Eventually, they decided to give him a course of radiation therapy to keep the tumor manageable in size until they could operate. It is obvious that the surgical team has been desperately trying to find a solution to all this, and my sister and brother in law have had nothing but praise for them and for all their efforts. Everyone knows that these are impossible conditions imposed by lack of preparation and funding, but that doesn’t make it easier for patients to deal with the stress of canceling appointments and treatment, as they get worse.

Adrian’s tumor continued to grow and his speech was severely affected. They have finally been able to organize a cancer center at a completely different hospital, and their surgery is now scheduled there, but that means all patients must be tested for COVID-19 to keep it free of coronavirus. Observing how they have dealt with this, it is clear that with the resources medical professionals can organize an efficient and functional health system: the problem is obtaining those resources from a government that has been systematically hungry and depriving the National Health Service.

Disqus ->