Cancer referrals back on track in Northumberland after covid disruption

The number of two-week referrals at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust normally average around 1,500 a month, but dropped to the 600-700 mark in April 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic really took hold.

However, figures presented by the trust’s clinical support for cancer services, Paul McNeillie, at the Tuesday, February 2, meeting of Northumberland County Council’s health and wellbeing committee, showed that they had bounced back by June 2020.

One of the national targets for cancer is for 85% of patients to be in treatment within 62 days of a referral and Northumbria Healthcare was above this mark for 10 of the 12 months between December 2019 and December 2020.

In the Newcastle and Gateshead hospital trusts, this target was missed every month, while it was only met for four months in Sunderland and South Tyneside and three months in Durham and Darlington.

Responding to a question from Cllr Les Bowman, himself a cancer survivor, Mr McNeillie said: “I would like to give you that assurance that while initial consultations might be virtual, the diagnostic pathway is the same as ever because it relies on patients coming in.”

Earlier in the meeting, Dr. Robin Hudson, NHS Northumberland Clinical Commissioning Group’s medical director and clinical lead for cancer, said: “Overall our performance has done quite well. It has actually improved slightly this year.”

He highlighted urology as an area which had been an issue, but has seen significant improvement.

But he added: “There are undoubtedly significant pressure areas and one of those is dermatology.”

In terms of cancer referrals, he also noted the return to pre-Covid levels after initial drops of 70% across the Northern Cancer Alliance region, however, again there are exceptions – lung cancer and head/neck cancers, both of which may have fairly hidden symptoms.

Dr Hudson described a range of innovations in cancer care which have come in during the past year, reflecting that it was similar to the rate of increase in developments during a war.

Councillors also heard from Amanda Walshe, Northumbria Healthcare’s lead cancer nurse, who highlighted the results of a patient survey carried out in August 2020, which garnered 101 responses.

Of those, 94 people described care at their oncology unit as excellent, while 97 felt they were listened to and 99 said they felt safe.

An example patient comment read: “During this pandemic, my overall treatment from diagnosis, operation and ongoing chemo treatment has been excellent and I can’t praise the NHS enough.

“The staff at the oncology unit in Alnwick are a credit to the service especially in these trying times.”

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