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.

It should have been a choice, by some trusts removing it completely have played god with people's lives, making decisions for fhat person with no option for that person to decide....who has any right to say well they can live with the pain instead. If I qas in pain I would like to choose whether I takr that risk or not to get treatment .

Is your DH an oncologist @RunningAwaywiththeCircus ?

It was a risk assessment process for all individual cancer patients.

How can that be true when the entire oncology department closed in our local hospital? It was impossible to contact anyone there for the first few weeks. My OH even went in person on a normal day and it was all in darkness with the security shutters across the doors. Phone calls were diverted to a call centre. Some depts may have been open throughout, but others were definitely closed.

[quote alwayslosing]@thedancingbear if you have nothing productive to say then say nothing. [/quote]
Posting first doesn’t give the right to harass other posters because they don’t agree with you.

I don’t agree with your viewpoint or understanding of the issue. It’s entirely emotive and lacks understanding and insight. But you can post away for whatever reason you want.

@alwayslosing

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.

What treatment though? Presumably some type of immunosuppressant or a biologic infusion?

That's understandable if they feel that the risk to you of catching Covid is greater than the risk of pausing treatment.

I've continued with immunosuppressant treatment for arthritis but I take tablets so haven't had the additional risk of attending hospital and I've been shielded. All other treatment has been paused though so I am in a lot more pain and my mobility has declined but that's not the fault of the NHS. That's the fault of the virus.

This is one reason why I get so angry with the people flouting the Covid rules. The more people who do it, the longer the virus remains a threat in the community and the more people catch it. That then means that the NHS can't get back to normal and so many treatments are affected.

An elderly neighbour had her steroid injections stopped. She can barely walk now. The injections are done at the GP surgery. After 8 weeks of lockdown she went to the GPS and asked if someone could give her an injection. The surgery was empty. They said no. Absolutely no reason why one of the nurses or GPs couldn’t have given her the injection.

@RunningAwaywiththeCircus So nobody recieved any treatment for the 3 months of lockdown at the cancer centre he is a clinical director of ?

Can I ask, is that a NHS centre or a private one ?

I disagree with this, my DH is currently receiving treatment fir terminal stage 4 cancer, in fact covid has actually helped us, he's needed radiotherapy for bone mets which he's had within a week of referral.

We wanted to go onto a new drug that the nhs doesn't normally allow but under covid rules we've been allowed it. The only difference in treatment is the majority of appointments are by phone, we go to the hospital for CT/ X ray etc then get a phone call to discuss. Bloods are currently being done at the GPs Vs hospital.

It has annoyed me intensely when on the news they say that the drop in patients presenting is solely due to people being too scared to attend. I am supposed to have treatment every six months for 3 years to help stop my breast cancer recurring in my bones. This treatment was stopped for everyone at my hospital. I would have been very happy to still have it but I wasn’t given the choice.

I know someone having the same treatment as part of treatment for prostate cancer. He is a private patient and his went ahead as normal. With hindsight, I wish I had explored the private option for the missed treatment. I am still waiting for the missed treatment. It’s now scheduled for August.

In the Times today there is a Professor of oncology (not Karl Sikora) saying there are a huge number of people they wanted to treat but have not been allowed to. Also now emerging a lot of radiotherapy was cancelled when there was probably no need.

I think everyone will have anecdotes about someone who was/was not treated but to me the NHS coped but only because other treatments were stopped/suspended and the elderly were sent back to care homes.

I think some data is emerging now that GP referrals for cancer are way down on the usual numbers.

notapizza. Cross post with yours. I’m very glad your husband’s treatment has gone ahead and improved.

It was a very subjective, case by case analysis of each individuals treatment and circumstances done by healthcare professionals with years and years of training and experience. People are desperate to prove how 'bad' the lockdown will be but honestly, they have no idea what they're talking about. Leave the decision making to the scientists, no Janet from Kent who's angry that her 5 year old doesn't get to enjoy Year 1

My DH was in the middle of radiotherapy when lock down started. Treatment continued until mid april. He has had CT and MRI and hasnt had any delays. I would imagine decisions are made on a case by case. My DH had surgery last year to remove both cancers and from diagnosis to surgery took two months and that was before COVID. That was to allow for proper screens, clarity around treatment plan. Not all cancer treatments are swift, it took over 4 weeks for a diagnosis never mind treatment starting.

I work in palliative care and our referrals have more than doubled in the past two weeks, a lot of younger patients too. We are recruiting more staff for the service as expect demand to be increased for the next year at least

@RunningAwaywiththeCircus I wasn't intending to split hairs, I was trying to work out the reasons for the disparity across the country, some people have had and continue to have diagnostic tests and treatment and others haven't or have had diagnosis/treatment delayed and postponed.
Why are some areas dealing with this better than others ? I am not expecting you to come up with all the answers by the way

As well as many patient's treatment being stopped/ delayed...those patients on clinical trials also had their treatment postponed....ALL clinical trials ( not just cancer trials) in my hospital were stopped completely and are only now very slowly starting up again. many of the staff working on the trials were either redeployed to Covid wards ( in many cases having had no ward experience for years!) or had to work from home- I'm shielding until at least 16th August and no idea what happens after that....I had 2 new breast trials due to open ( 1 was commercial trial which has now been ditched completely- so no money for trust and no access to novel treatment for patients) ...it's a mess

@Coffeeandbeans

An elderly neighbour had her steroid injections stopped. She can barely walk now. The injections are done at the GP surgery. After 8 weeks of lockdown she went to the GPS and asked if someone could give her an injection. The surgery was empty. They said no. Absolutely no reason why one of the nurses or GPs couldn’t have given her the injection.

I’m sorry that your elderly neighbour is struggling but the fact that the GP surgery was empty was not the reason that the Doctors or nurses couldn’t give your neighbour her injection. The steroid injections suppress the immune system so your neighbour has that problem and also her age against her if she were to catch Covid-19. Obviously the Drs had made a risk assessment and the risks far outweighed the benefits of having the injection.

I understand why clinical decisions were made but I’m immensely frustrated that they didn’t review them as time went on. Not every rheumatology patient, for example, is the same. If they made a blanket rule not to offer X treatment because it suppresses the immune system too much, why not review it when 4 weeks later when Jane is really poorly and needs a personalised approach, not a “infusions are cancelled”. Sue may be fine without her treatment but Jane may not.

I think this thread should be compulsory reading for evertpyine who ever says it's OK for the shielded to die during the pandemic, because they were going to anyway.

Active cancer on treatment almost invariably puts someone on the shielding list, and we're all supposed to be tipsily out of the way so everyone else can have a normal life.

Being unable to access treatment you would otherwise have had, is a form of Covid death.

My concern is that extra funding will be put into the NHS (see above all the claims of long term underfunding) - but without wholesale review and change of how it is managed, the situation will not improve.

My dad has bladder cancer and had 2 operations before the CV hit the fan. The tumours were all removed but he was supposed to get 6 chemo sessions. The hospital told him that these would be postponed due to (a) the risk of getting the virus whilst in for chemo (b) the lowering of the immune system due to chemo and that he’d then have to shield which would impact his quality of life as well. Seemed the best decision to me in these less than ideal circumstances. I am sure though if he had really needed the chemo then for his survival he’d have got it.