Good environment for ONC Billions 'wasted' on cancer service
Billions of pounds have been wasted on NHS cancer services which are drowning in bureaucracy and failing patients, according to oncology specialists.
Reform, an independent think tank of nearly 1,000 doctors, says the £2 billion invested in NHS cancer services during the past five years has offered poor value for money.
Director Andrew Haldenby said: "Cancer patients often live in poor health unnecessarily for long periods of time due to a lack of co-ordination of their care by overstretched treatment services."
Leading oncologists Professor Karol Sikora and Dr Maurice Slevin compiled the report, with Professor Nick Bosanquet, of Imperial College, London.
Prof Sikora, a consultant at Hammersmith Hospital in London, said: "In theory you could get the best treatment available in the world from the NHS - it just depends how lucky you are and where you live."
He said the two key failings were in the wait for scans and x-rays and in the wait for radiotherapy, which could be up to six months.
He said: "We are falling behind the rest of Europe and it seems to be because the resources are not being directed where they are needed and not being used effectively."
Prof Sikora says cancer care is being stifled by too many agencies, including primary care trusts, strategic health authorities, cancer networks and the Department of Health, some of whom have little relevant experience and are overwhelmed.
He also says money has been wasted on the appointment of several hundred new administrative staff who are unable to improve services because of the shortage of frontline staff such as radiographers.
In the report he suggests cancer care follow the path of cardiac care in the NHS, with work contracted out to the private sector - particularly diagnostics, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
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