In a spotlight interview released on World Cancer Day with The Telegraph, GCR Co-Founder and Radiotherapy UK Chair Professor Pat Price doesn't mince words detailing the state of cancer care in the UK. In the article, Professor Pat Price: 'The NHS can’t run at full capacity--bureaucracy is clogging the system', Price blames the lack of investing in new technologies, missteps during the pandemic, and unreasonable red tape and tariffs in which "the [hospital] trust actually gets more money for treating patients longer."
"The bureaucracy needs to be cast away and just let people get on... We don’t need massive breakthroughs in research. How about just treating all the people on time with the standard treatment? It would transform survival in the UK."
An “accidental campaigner” for Catch up with Cancer Campaign, Price claims that while A&E and maternity services were protected during the Covid crisis, NHS’s failure to protect cancer care was a grave mistake in which cancer victims have become collateral victims of the pandemic. The Telegraph cites new analysis suggesting 17 percent of cases are being diagnosed late. “That’s a lot because then you go from curable to not curable. [Price] notes that ‘for every four weeks’ delay in treatment, that can mean up to 10 per cent reduction in survival.”
“You can’t cancel cancer... This is the biggest cancer crisis in my lifetime or ever,” Price told the interviewer. “The NHS is in a big mess, but cancer needs to be back at the top of the priority list. It’s a real watershed moment. Will somebody listen and help?’”
Radiotherapy couldn’t ask for a better advocate and spokesperson than Professor Price. “In cancer and in medicine, there’s a lot to do for patients and research and if the establishment is doing the opposite, I’d rather do what’s right for the patient.”
The Telegraph subscribers can read the full 4 Feb 2023 interview with Professor Pat Price here:
Other World Cancer Day media highlights include a powerful letter to the editor written by Price and Professor Richard Sullivan: Times Letters: Breaking the logjam on trade with the EU. As well as The Telegraph highlighting Radiotherapy UK’s World Cancer Day event: “51 MPs urge the Government to continue its ‘war on cancer’ after it u-turns on tackling backlogs”.
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