MSPs have been warned of a failure in cancer services as treatment targets reach their 12th year without being met amid chronic staff shortages in Scotland’s NHS.
The stark message was delivered by cancer charities in evidence to Holyrood’s health, social care and sport committee on Tuesday.
Cancer Research UK’s Prof Farhat Din, a clinician scientist and colorectal surgeon, warned of “huge unmet need” as patients went undiagnosed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
She told the committee: “We don’t have enough staff to see patients in secondary care, in terms of the demand from referrals from primary care.
“In areas of lower socio-economic wealth, the magnitude of impact there is much greater.
“So we will see a worse divide in health inequalities.”
Macmillan Cancer Support’s Peter Hastie told MSPs: “The existing cancer waiting times target has not been hit with cancer for 12 years, that is really, really difficult for cancer patients.
“I think it is a really strong indicator something is going badly wrong in cancer services.”
A Scottish government spokesperson said: “We are treating more cancer patients on time, within both 62- and 31-day pathways, compared to pre-pandemic and 10 years ago.”
