Radiotherapy UK Chair, Professor Pat Price, urges government against a ‘tunnel-vision’ approach.
Professor Price has joined fellow cancer experts Professor Richard Sullivan and Professor Mark Lawler in condemning the government’s decision to consult again instead of delivering action on cancer services.
Writing in The Lancet Oncology, the trio have warned the government that it cannot consult its way out of a crisis.
Professor Pat Price said:
“Delayed cancer treatment has become the deadly norm in this country, and we won’t reverse it unless we commit to doing things differently.
“If we keep doing the same things, with the same voices in the room, we’re going to continue to face some of the worst cancer outcomes in Europe.
“In the massively overlooked area of radiotherapy cancer care, for example, nearly two-thirds of cancer patients are waiting too long for their cancer treatment.
“Too often, we see cancer policy take a tunnel-vision approach, only focusing on areas like early diagnosis and completely overlooking the fact that we need to actually treat patients if we want to improve survival.”
