Crisis in radiology ‘causing deaths’
Cancer patients are dying unnecessarily as a result of shortages of staff and equipment, a new report claims.
The Royal College of Radiologists has released a report which claims that, despite Department of Health and National Lottery cash injections, patients are dying and others are not receiving the treatment they need.
“There is no doubt that patients are dying unnecessarily and many are not able to have timely palliation of the symptoms of advanced cancer due to the lack of radiotherapy capacity in the UK,” said Dr Dan Ash, president of the college.
Radiotherapy is a key treatment for cancer and is responsible for about 40 per cent of cured cases.
The RCR report looks at equipment, workload and staffing for radiotherapy in the UK between 1997 and 2002.
Researchers found that, despite a 16 per cent increase in demand for treatment, megavoltage machines in clinical use for radiotherapy had only increased by 10 per cent.
This leads to patients waiting longer for treatment and being forced to live with the symptoms of cancer for longer, the report claims.
The RCR warns that the situation looks set to worsen, with services still falling short of the targets set by the National Cancer Plan in 1998.
The current machines were also found to be ageing rapidly, with 38 per cent of linear accelerators at least 10 years old in 2002, compared with just 25 per cent in 1997.
Many departments were unable to fill key posts and so were unable to work to full capacity, the report adds.
Dr Ash said: “This should be an exciting time for radiotherapy because improvements in technology have opened up the possibility of improving cure rates while at the same time reducing side-effects.”
