Cancer patients are being denied prompt chemotherapy due to a lack of specialist nurses
Sufferers at Churchill Hospital in Oxford – which treats up to 20,000 across the region – are facing weeks of delays
CANCER patients are being denied timely chemotherapy due to the lack of specialist nurses at a major NHS hospital, according to a bombshell leak last night.
Sufferers at Churchill Hospital in Oxford – which treats up to 20,000 across the region – are facing weeks of delays, while terminally ill patients may see their treatment slashed.
The hospital’s head of chemotherapy, Andrew Weaver, reportedly admitted the desperate situation in an internal memo to staff - saying the chemo unit is struggling to cope with the huge shortfall in nurses.
His email, seen by The Times, reportedly states: “Currently we are down approximately 40 per cent on the establishment of nurses on DTU [Day Treatment Unit] and as a consequence we are having to delay chemotherapy patients’ starting times to four weeks.”
He reportedly added that while he wants to protect treatments that may cure patients, treatment for the terminally ill – which may relieve their suffering or prolong their lives – may have to be cut.
He says: “For example, where normally six cycles are given then teams should consider reducing to four cycles in total.
“I know that many of us will find it difficult to accept these changers but the bottom line is that the current situation with limited numbers of staff is unsustainable.”
He predicts the current situation won’t improve for up to two years at the hospital, which gave chemo to 19,249 patients in 2016.
Experts blasted government policy for the lack of specialist oncology nurses – who take up to six years to train - while patient groups warned that chemo delays and cuts would claim lives and leave patients in pain.
Liz McAnulty, chairwoman of the Patients Association, told the paper: “It is horrifying to hear of an NHS hospital reducing chemotherapy treatment because it lacks the staff to administer it.
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“The mismanagement and underfunding of the NHS that has led us to this state of affairs is indefensible and is now obviously endangering patients’ lives.”
But bosses at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said the proposals are not yet official policy.
A spokesman said: “Any decision to change the approach to cancer treatment so significantly would require a thorough assessment of the potential impact on the quality and safety of treatment and care provided to cancer patients. Any changes to treatment would also need to comply with national guidance.”
A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “Last month we announced the first ever cancer workforce strategy, which set out plans to increase the numbers working in cancer care to speed up diagnoses and get more people into treatment more quickly.”