What a stupid f... mistake to stop treatment for cancer patients during lockdown

[alwayslosing]

Stopping the treatment for life threatening conditions was a stupid mistake that costs lives.
The stupid reason that the treatment can aggravate COVID 19 symptoms in case the patients gets it is a money making scam on behalf of the government.

Just watched the news about a lady that died because her cancer treatment was stopped. She could have lived longer and be with her boys. It made me so angry and frustrated that these people were not given the option to choose whether or not to continue the treatment. Choices were made for people and people died as a result.,

This is ridiculous...what kind of society are we living in? Is COVID 19 an excuse to stop treatments saving money and killing the sick?

This is not happening only in the UK but all over the world.

This was one of the many things that I just couldn't get my head round during lockdown. My husband has had cancer twice at the ripe old age of 34. I thank our lucky stars that the most recent time was last year and not this year. I truly believe that in the long term, we will find lockdown was more deadly and damaging than COVID itself.

It was not all stopped.

Some of the very riskiest treatments were (because of how weak and vulnerable the patient would become), and others (particularly radiotherapies) were on alternate schedules.

Many others continued unaffected.

The reasons are not 'stupid' and the risk/benefit is assessed individually.

The biggest risk is that people are not coming forward, based on the entirely erroneous belief that there is no treatment. The numbers presenting symptoms at GP is worryingly low, despite 2WW referrals happening pretty much as normal.

The pause to screening is also a concern

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53300784

Some trusts did stop Cancer treatment as a way to save money. It is well publicised. But most did not. Where I am it has very much been business as usual throughout the pandemic.

Do you mean this sad death, OP?

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/cancer-patient-28-who-covid-22087330

The report says Stevie had tested positive for Covid, and the palliative chemo/rads were simply not safe until she tested negative, but could have started once clear.

Which trusts cancelled all?

There was certainly some rescheduling - less extensive procedures being preferred, other delayed until 'clean' facilities could be established. In the peak weeks, that affected a lot of people.

But I'm not aware on any trusts cancelling all cancer treatments.

Stopping the treatment for life threatening conditions was a stupid mistake that costs lives.
The stupid reason that the treatment can aggravate COVID 19 symptoms in case the patients gets it is a money making scam on behalf of the government
Can you provide evidence for this please? Might be hard as the words don’t make any actual sense, but we can give it a go..

Yes, as nether says, it wasn't universally stopped,. One of my friends has been having treatment.That's because, apart from having cancer, she's otherwise healthy and not considered to be at a greatly increased risk.

And yes, as nether also says, the biggest risk is to people who mistaken;y believe there is no treatment so don't get symptoms checked.

@RoseAndRose no it was a lady. BBC has interviewed her and she said she doesn't want to die. She wanted to spend more time with her boys. It broke my heart. A few weeks after the interview she died.

Some trusts did stop Cancer treatment as a way to save money. cancer treatment is paid for centrally by NHS England. Trusts would have to cover the costs until they are essentially reimbursed but I struggle to believe there are trusts out there who have such poor cash flow they couldn’t physically afford to treat cancer patients. Trusts wouldn’t be saving any money by not treating them.

But I’ll google in a second (“widely publicised”).

It didn't stop for everyone. I know 2 people having treatment and it continued.

So sad for the lady, though.

I saw this on the BBC and thought you should see it:

Coronavirus could cause 35,000 extra UK cancer deaths, experts warn - www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53300784

Sorry the first sentence above is automatic! I agree with others, it is more to do with people not reporting symptoms, and the pause to screening. It is very worrying 😕

I saw that too. Its very sad. It really does depend on the trust though. I know a woman who has been diagnosed and had a lumpectomy and has started chemo during lockdown. I've had a referral and some tests which thankfully don't need any further action during lockdown. In fact, there was barely any waiting time for my appointments because people aren't coming forward. They aren't doing the camera up the backside though (the procedural name evades me) its straight to CT scan in my trust.

If you look at the details I don’t think she died because her treatment had stopped. Also it was a matter of organisation, no one knew what we were dealing with.
Of course cancer treatments shouldn’t have stopped, but in any emergency priorities have to be established and dealt with.

My husband's second cancer was detected at a routine annual screen 6 years after the first cancer. If it had been this year rather than last year, I have no doubt we'd have been facing a later stage disease.

As would have been a phone call rather than appointment.

This is ridiculous...what kind of society are we living in? Is COVID 19 an excuse to stop treatments saving money and killing the sick

Er, no. But many treatments have the side effect of damaging the immune system, bringing people in to potentially give them covid would have been an enormous risk in itself and caused just as many headlines. The more people in and out of hospitals, the (much) higher the spread of illness, and hospitals had to be ready for an Italy-size bulge and overwhelm, again they would have been criticized relentlessly if they hadn't diverted resources and minimised non-urgent use of hospitals.

I'm very aware that many people with other medical concerns have been severely affected by the shutdowns of care, my DH is one of them. But this is due to the virus far more than to the NHS. Blame the virus.

I'm sorry but it really frustrates me when people say things like "it was a money making scam" to stop treatments.

The consultants worked extremely hard going through each individual case to determine if it was safe to proceed with treatment during the pandemic and did what was in the best interest of the patients - some continued with the regime, some paused chemotherapy some gave radiotherapy in higher doses but less fractions.

It was not a money making scam! These medics spend their lives learning about cancer sites and treatment toxicity. My local trust continued to treat the majority of patients - we even moved to treatments to the private hospital to try and keep our patients safe... a cancer patient dying of Covid is an extremely traumatic and lonely experience.

Cancer diagnosis and treatment has continued in our area.

I know a few people who have continued their cancer treatment in the UK during lockdown

One of my friends (she's in her 60s) has her arthritis treatment stopped. Why was that?
She is in so much pain she cannot walk from the living room to the kitchen...she was told the treatment can interfere with the COVID treatment in case she gets it. Her consultant told her that the information came from the top ( of the NHS) and he was not allowed to continue the treatment
Let's all live in the fear that we might get Covid then.

It was a risk assessment process for all individual cancer patients. But yes I agree it’s likely that some wrong decisions were made for some patients. I also felt very sad watching that BBC report and I will watch the Panorama program on this subject tonight.

My mum continued to have chemo because it was working well

You didn't read the link, OP

Stevie had stage 4, terminal, cervical cancer.

My sister is a nurse in a private hospital. Her local NHS trust has been using them to treat cancer patients.
My BIL had cancer last year which was treated. He was called in for a follow up scan early, as there was no one being referred. Lucky for him as they found the cancer had returned. He started chemotherapy this week