THE latest figures for cancer waiting times in Scotland are deeply disturbing. In particular, the increased delay in treatment times for bowel cancer patients is shocking, even if reasons may be adduced as to why this is so.
In a sense, waiting times have been a victim of the success of the improved home-testing kits, which are simpler to use and so have had a higher take-up, leading to more referrals for further tests, which puts pressure on the system. That many results turn out to have been “false positives” is obviously great news for those involved but can contribute to the unfortunate consequence of genuine cancer cases being delayed.
All of which might have been stymied to a great degree if the excellent screening programme had been backed up with the resources to manage its consequences. Beyond bowel cancer, more generally in terms of the disease, lack of resources has also doubtless contributed to the worst waiting times performance on record.
There has been, we know, a long-standing shortage in the number of radiologists – needed to examine scans – and the ageing population has to be factored in too. That resources have had trouble keeping pace with demand is not a problem peculiar to Scotland in the western world, and we know that the Scottish Government does not have a bottomless pit of finances upon which it can draw to magic away the problems.
But this is a matter of the utmost gravity. Cancer is no respecter of waiting times. It has no use for financial excuses. It forges on its potentially deadly path. It is a disease in which time is of the essence in the deployment of treatment.
The Health Secretary, Jeane Freeman, will know these latest figures are unacceptable. She will want to do something about them – and she must. Lives are at stake and, with cancer, time is rarely on our side when trying to save them.
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