The “stay at home” message is behind a major fall in urgent lung cancer referrals, according to Cancer Research UK’s GP adviser. Lung cancer is the deadliest type and only 3% of sufferers survive for five years or more if diagnosed at the latest stage. People with symptoms are now being urged to contact their GP, but for many, it is already too late. The Telegraph has the story.
Urgent lung cancer referrals have fallen by a third, as a consultant blames the “stay at home” message.
Some 20,300 fewer people were referred for treatment in England between March 2020 and January 2021 compared with the previous year, according to an analysis by Cancer Research UK. This is a 34% fall in patients.
The charity has now warned that multiple lockdowns have resulted in damaging delays in life-saving treatment, as people are either ignoring symptoms altogether or putting off seeking help in order to comply with Covid rules.
Dr Neil Smith, Cancer Research UK’s GP adviser, said: “It’s incredibly worrying that fewer lung cancer patients have started treatment since the beginning of the pandemic.
“While initial advice to stay at home and isolate if people had a new, continuous cough, could mean some people understandably delayed seeking help, we know delays to potentially life-saving treatment may mean lung cancer could progress.
“Covid has created a perfect storm of problems, but the tide is turning as cases drop and vaccines are rolled out.” …
Lung cancer is the most deadly type but if it is diagnosed early when it is more treatable 57% of people will survive for five years or more. This compares with 3% of people diagnosed at the latest stage.
Some of the main symptoms include a cough which doesn’t go away after two or three weeks, coughing up blood, persistent breathlessness, loss of appetite and unexplained weight loss.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Earlier this month, the number of people waiting to receive hospital treatment in England reached a record high (4.59 million) as a result of Covid and lockdowns. Sky News reported:
It is the highest since records began in August 2007.
The number waiting more than a year was 304,044 in January – the highest for any month since January 2008.
In comparison, the number in January 2020 was just 1,643.
With lockdown in force and many hospitals dealing with record numbers of Covid patients, January also saw a 54% drop in people admitted for routine treatment.
Some 139,378 patients were admitted, compared with 304,888 the same time last year.
As Dr James Moreton Wakeley wrote in Lockdown Sceptics yesterday, there is “ample evidence of the impact of the campaign of fear that shows the concerns aren’t merely theoretical”.
The Telegraph’s report is worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
another 20,000 dead people to add to the lockdown disbenefits side of the balance sheet for the risk analysis that never was
2-3 week cough could be mistaken for SARS-CoV-2 infection ( this was pushed as a significant symptom for CoViD19 from the very beginning).
Likewise, breathlessness.
This has been the problem from the very beginning, with symptoms publicised for CoViD19 that were very non specific, which didn’t help healthcare professionals never mind the patients themselves.
First predicted here at LS how many months ago ?
If a doctor actually saw and examined the patient, I presume there’s just a chance that he might be able to tell the difference between Covid and bat flu?
That’s why they are now broadcasting the lung cancer advert.
I find the photo quite funny. The Stay at home poster in front of a flightcenter shop.
Of course – this ‘distance’ diagnosis model by telephone is fraught with problems.
There has been, I guess, an over-willingness on the part of some to go to the GP with every pimple. But we can now see the result of abandoning face-to-face initial consultations.
To be fair it is my belief that those same hypochondriacs who usually clogg up the surgery and A&E with their imaginary ailments are the same people who are still ‘shielding at home’ convinced that hospitals are awash with unburied Covids.
I predict a “TB outbreak” ‘ere long!
Ye gods, truly terrifying: just as I was trying to forget about Tony Bliar!
Actually I think we might already have had a couple of outbreaks of that TB. Mercy!
Comments on the Reddit daily thread topped 1000 yesterday.
Join us!
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSceptics/