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.

They are talking about this on Lorraine ITV right now.

A colleagues Dad’s cancer treatment was stopped. He was told the risk of catching Covid at hospital when he went in for his chemo was too high. It restarted last week.

I’ve also found in my health board and my job that they are bringing in all these changes via the back door and using Covid as an excuse

@RunningAwaywiththeCircus I think all the health systems in Europe require the patient to pay towards treatment, that may be in tax, a seperate deduction from their wages with a additional proportion being paid by their employer, or /as well as at point of care.

I've been seen very quickly at the GP and for a scan because of post menopausal bleeding (one cause can be cancer) within the past 2 months. Luckily there's nothing untoward that they can see. But if people present at their GP with a problem they will be seen and if needed treated. The problem is that the patients are staying away. People tend to avoid dealing with symptoms hoping they'll go away at the best of times. Add Covid and there has been a massive under-reporting of symptoms.

But it's not the hospital/GPs fault. They can only help if people tell them there's a problem.

Chemotherapy screws up immune systems, even the maintenance doses taken regularly for all sorts of conditions, like arthritis or to extend an already terminal cancer diagnosis. This was not the year to have a lowered immune system; even if the lack of treatment caused major problems too. They would have balanced the risk of acquiring covid and the almost inevitable early death, vs staying tucked away at home. If you'd turned up with an urgent condition the surgery and other treatments would have happened, but that's not the case in the examples given here.

OP it wasn't stopped. We have a neighbour who has been attending hospital regularly for chemo and radiotherapy throughout lockdown. Maybe they're not doing surgery. She isn't at that stage so I don't know.

My mums friend treatment started during covid and another friends treatment stopped, it was stopped as it’s palliative care and they reckoned the risk of infection of covid was too high, these last 15 weeks she has been nearly infection free other than a couple of courses of antibiotics, whereas on treatment times she is fatigued a Nd on antibiotics at least twice a month.

We’re slap bang in the middle of the EU table fur GDP % spent on healthcare

Yes and that means year on year, we spend around 1.5 to 2% less per year on healthcare, that adds up, so over 10 years, the UK has spent 15 to 20% less than say Germany, France, Austria or Sweden.

Numbers of beds, nurses and doctors are all significantly lower per capita than our main european neighbours.

We also have poor outcomes for cancers, mainly due to wait times, getting diagnosis and treatments.

I thikn it was a sensible choice - the NHS balanced risk of catching covid (very high as so many NHS staff and carers had/have it) v. not having the treatment.

I was diagnosed with cancer the week before lockdown. I’ve only just had surgery to remove it. I hope and pray that I am still stage 2 and grade 2 when my results come back this week, but given it was already in my lymph nodes it’s not great. The cancer has had three and a half months to spread. Despite regular contact with my hospital, and my hospital doing cancer surgery throughout, I couldn’t get my surgery any faster. I’m now expecting to not get chemotherapy or radiotherapy within the normal timeframe either.

This will all come out in the wash in 5 or 10 years time, when the real analysis of decisions and impacts can be achieved. Hindsight will be a wonderful thing and I think it may demonstrate that at times the wrong decisions were made.

Nobody will have wilfully made the decision for more people to die of other conditions, but that won't make it less of a reality. But it will be a learning opportunity for how to handle and respond to potential future events.

I was diagnosed with breast cancer three days before lockdown. I had my surgery on the day of lockdown and was home the same day. My active treatments have started and progressed as they should have. I am fortunate to be in an area where Covid rates have been reasonably low, however, I haven't come across a single person whose cancer treatment has been stopped or paused because of it.

My Sil's mum had here her chemo continued. So not true. Every clinician had to make choices as to what would be best for each patient. At no stage is money brought into this discussion.

It's absolutely ridiculous. I suppose because they don't announce number of deaths from cancer every day, it doesn't matter.

I don’t know anyone that’s died of Covid but I’m lost 4 friends and family members. 3 due to cancer - all terminal but it felt that treatment ended a little earlier ...& 1 due to very ill health, she did have positive Covid 2 days before death but we put her death due to the stroke she had, it was like having Covid the hospital changed the way they treated her - though I’m sure with her best interest at heart.

It does feel for the cancer deaths it was sooner than we thought it would happen, treatment stopped etc but I suppose we will never know if covid made a difference.

so many people are fearful of contacting GP, minor Injuries and A & E now.
a phone call to the GP here results in a call back from the nurse practitioner

I know someone who was diagnosed with cancer in April - a form with a very high survival rate with treatment. Except he caught covid in hospital and died.

That’s the sort of risks they’re having to weigh up...

My cancer treatment went ahead (chemo, surgery and radiotherapy). My chemo finished early but that was due to a scan indicating the tumour had gone. My oncologist didn't think there was benefit in the additional cycles versus the risk of COVID19. My surgery was brought forward and the hospital implemented the new high dose, short course radiotherapy early (was going to be brought in during September).

At the start of the pandemic some cancer treatments were affected due to the number of staff having to self isolate. Oncologists were performing case by case reviews. Some palliative treatments were suspended. Clinical research trials stopped recruiting. I was part of a research trial and all but 1 of my chemo nurses had to self isolate at the beginning, which put a huge pressure on the remaining staff.

One of the biggest concerns is that people haven't been going to their GP if they have concerns. The radiologists giving me my treatments were concerned about the lack of patients they were treating. My appointments were 3.20pm and I was often the last patient of the day, when the machines would normally be fully booked up until 6pm.

@totallyinapproppriate Where is Wales are you? My treatment has been swift thoughout

It didn't stop.

My partner had biopsies, saw consultants and ultimately had surgery for expected thyroid cancer throughout lockdown.

I've seen a GP and have had mammogram appointments booked throughout too (on a schedule that was almost normal - a 3 week wait instead of a 2 week wait - the original appointment with a GP was a phone call the day after I called, and a physical appointment 3 days later).

ive seen the advert saying they had to stop the drug trials its very worrying that covid has stopped alot of things even though cancer is more prevalent

It didn't stop.

It did, in some places.

I think it is fairer to say it did for some people ? why that the case for them isn't clear ?