Matt Hancock warns cancer patients will only be treated if Covid-19 stays ‘under control’

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Cancer patients will only be guaranteed treatment if Covid-19 stays ‘under control’, Matt Hancock claimed today as he faced a roasting from MPs over an Excel spreadsheet blunder that has potentially led to tens of thousands of Britons being unaware they are infected with the disease.

The Health Secretary claimed that it was ‘critical for everybody to understand the best way to keep cancer services running is to suppress the disease’, in a clear warning that thousands patients may face delays to planned operations and chemotherapy if the outbreak continues to spiral.  

Cancer referrals reached more than 90 per cent of pre-pandemic levels in July, while 95 per cent of all cases received treatment within 31 days.

But he said the bounce-back could only be maintained if the virus stayed ‘under control’ with its transmission ‘suppressed’ across the UK – as cases spiral across the country with 12,594 new infections confirmed yesterday. 

Hundreds of thousands missed vital appointments after hospital wards were cleared in March this year – with one charity saying more than one million women were not able to get screened for breast cancer. 

Labour viciously tore into the Health Secretary’s ever-growing list of blunders in the Commons, and demanded Hancock reveal whether all the contacts of those missed in the cataclysmic Excel blunder had been reached.

Firing on all cylinders after the Health Secretary failed to give an answer, Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth ripped into the Government’s cack-handed vaccination programme.

‘I listened carefully to what he said about a vaccine yesterday in light of the News about the Government’s aims to vaccinate 30million people,’ he warned. ‘There has been an expectation that the whole of the population would get vaccinated – not least because he said at the Downing Street press conference he “would hope, given the scale of the crisis, we would have the vaccine and everyone would be given the vaccine”.

‘They’re his words. Can he tell us for the 50 per cent of people who will not be vaccinated how soon will it take for life to return to normal for them?’

Number 10 admitted this afternoon that just 63 per cent of the ‘missing’ Covid-19 cases had now been traced, with 37 per cent still yet to be contacted. Assuming an average of three contacts per person – the delay means there could be at least 22,236 people still moving around as normal without taking any precautions despite being exposed to the virus.

The Government’s beleaguered Test and Trace system is under renewed scrutiny after it emerged 16,000 positive cases had been missed due to an Excel Spreadsheet error – where cases were cut off after a certain number of rows was reached.

The disastrous oversight, which ministers are keen to blame on the soon-to-be-defunct Public Health England, meant thousands were not contacted and traced despite testing positive for the virus. 

Telling the Commons operations for cancer patients may be rolled back in the face of spiralling coronavirus infections, Hancock said: ‘It’s critical for everybody to understand that the best way to keep cancer services running is to suppress the disease, and the more the disease is under control the more we can both recover and continue with cancer treatments.

‘It’s beholden on all of us to make the case that controlling this virus not only reduces the number of deaths directly from coronavirus but also enables us as best as possible to recover the treatment that we need to for cancer and other killer diseases.’

The Government is planning to keep private hospital wards hired by the NHS ‘Covid-19 free’ so that it can continue treating cancers while battling a surge in hospitalisations due to the virus. Royal Stoke University Hospital, which transferred its cancer treatment to Nuffield Health in Newcastle-under-Lyme at the start of the pandemic, was held up as an example of what others should look to achieve.

Matt Hancock said: ‘Because (private hospitals) very rarely have the pressures of emergency attendance that means that we can ensure that they are part of the “green” part of the health service.

‘(This means) that they are as free as is feasibly possible from coronavirus and therefore able to carry out all sorts of cancer treatments.’

He added: ‘These referrals are leading to the action that’s necessary and it’s very important that the message goes out that the NHS is open and that anybody with a concern over cancer should come forward and that we can save lives.’

Almost 2.5million people missed out on cancer tests and treatments during the first wave of the pandemic, according to Cancer Research UK.

They said more than 2.1million are still waiting for crucial screenings for breast, cervical and bowel cancer. Another 290,000 have missed out on urgent referrals to confirm or rule out tumours.

More than a million women missed checks for breast cancer at the height of the pandemic, Breast Cancer Now has said.

If these extra procedures had been allowed to go ahead, some would have saved lives or extended them, granting extra invaluable time to families.

When Matt Hancock was challenged over his department’s error that led to 16,000 cases being missed by Labour this morning, he claimed they were ‘continuing’ to search for contacts.

‘That information will be made available when in the normal way that has been completed,’ he said. ‘But you can’t know in advance how many contacts there are because you have to do interviews with the index cases first.’

When challenged over less than half the UK’s population receiving the vaccine, he said: ‘We await the data on the clinical trials and the vaccine (whether or not it is effective). We are putting in place logistical plans now.’

As he answered questions, the Health Secretary was told to show respect for local authorities by supporting public health teams to run test and trace systems. 

Labour’s Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) told the Commons: ‘Yesterday the Health Secretary told me ‘we have been putting that money into councils. What money is that? £7 million he announced, split between nine councils. That is against a £12 billion for Serco. That’s not putting that extra money into councils, is it?

‘So can I ask him to show respect for members of this House, and more importantly for our constituents, and answer the question: when is he going to stop relying on the outsourcing giants and support local public health teams with the funds they need – because that is how he and this country is going to fix Test, Trace and Isolate.’

Matt Hancock replied: ‘We have an open dialogue with councils and with local mayors about what needs to be done. But I would just urge him, that on behalf of all of his constituents in Sefton, that I think it is better to support the whole effort to control this virus, not just part of it.’

Hancock was also challenged by former Health Secretary and Conservative party leadership contender Jeremy Hunt. who asked whether any action was being taken to assist patients suffering from long Covid.

‘My right honourable friend knows that for every person who dies of coronavirus at least one another person has long term symptoms for more than three months – meaning breathlessness, chronic fatigue, and often they can’t go back to work normally,’ he said, before asking whether clinics for them would become available.

Hancock said the Department of Health is working to get these clinics ready, and is ‘in the process’ of setting them up. He added that long Covid is something he ‘deeply understands’.