Cancer: Surgery

(asked on 21st April 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many operations to treat cancer have been cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; and what assessment have they made of when such operations could resume.


Answered by
Lord Bethell Portrait
Lord Bethell
This question was answered on 13th May 2020

The first published data covering the period of the COVID-19 outbreak for the month of March will be available during May.

National Health Service providers have previously been asked to maintain access to essential cancer surgery and other treatment throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, in line with guidance from the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and NHS England and NHS Improvement. Exceptions have been where clinicians consider that for an individual patient the risk of the procedure at the current time outweighs the benefit to the patient.

Local systems and Cancer Alliances are continuing to identify surgical capacity for cancer, and providers must protect and deliver cancer surgery and cancer treatment by ensuring that cancer surgery hubs are fully operational. Full use should be made of the available contracted independent sector hospital and diagnostic capacity locally and regionally.

Cancer treatment must be brought back to pre-pandemic levels at the earliest opportunity to minimise potential harm, and to reduce the scale of the post-pandemic surge in demand.

Reticulating Splines