Professor Pat Price has called for direct action to support the UK’s cancer workforce.
Our Chair, and co-founder of the #CatchUpWithCancer campaign, joined BBC Breakfast on Friday after the Health Ombudsman warned medical scan mistakes were putting lives at risk.
The Ombudsman has upheld (or partially upheld) 45 cases, including failures in medical imaging, since 2021. One case led to a 10-month delay in diagnosing cancer.
Professor Price has been campaigning since 2020, urging government to fix the ‘broken’ cancer pathway and bring meaningful change for patients.
Speaking on Friday, Professor Price said:
“We haven’t got enough capacity. We haven’t got enough workforce. We haven’t got enough technology. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
It’s about getting things right: what are the structures that need to be put in place to help the World-class staff that we’ve got do their job properly.
We’ve been giving solutions for the last five years but there’s nowhere to take them to – nothing happens! What we need is direct action.”
Watch the interview in full: Professor Price on BBC Breakfast
Workload pressure, staff shortages and a lack of tools are contributing to the problem, suggested Professor Price, who said she did not believe scan mistakes were solely due to ‘sloppy work’.
“Unless the changes in the NHS that are going to come now, and the cancer plan, really address these fundamentals, we’re going to continue [making costly mistakes].”
BBC Breakfast’s Nina Warhurst and Ben Thompson also interviewed Rebecca Hilsenrath of the Health Service Ombudsman, and Dr Katherine Halliday of the Royal College of Radiologists.
Lives at risk due to medical scan mistakes, says ombudsman – BBC News
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