The Cancer Society is calling on health authorities to boost cancer testing and screening, saying the Level 4 lockdown has led to a backlog which could cost hundreds of lives in the near future.
Speaking this morning on Breakfast, the Society's medical director Chris Jackson said there was likely to be many Kiwis at the moment who had symptoms of cancer, but had not undergone necessary testing because of Level 4.
"Evidence from overseas has shown that during a Covid-19 lockdown, you see only about half the number of people with cancer diagnosed - that's because fewer people are going to their doctors, fewer diagnostic tests are done, fewer surgeries, fewer scans," Dr Jackson said.
"That means there is a group of people at the moment who have got symptoms suspicious for cancer who just haven't had the tests that they need.
"The other thing that we've seen from the modeling work from the UK is the impact from delays - so if you stop doing scans for a month, or you reduce the number of CT scans, and then you try and catch that up in a system which is already overstretched, that can take many months or even six months or a year to catch up - that three months' delay could result in as many as 400 deaths from cancer that could be preventable under usual circumstances."
Dr Jackson said some people would have put off seeing their doctor about suspected cancer symptoms due to the lockdown, and it is critical that those people understand that health care is essential.
Dr Vanessa Thornton says measures are in place to ensure people don’t get infected with Covid-19 while at medical centres and hospitals. (Source: Other)
"We know that a lot of private hospitals stopped working over the lockdown - interestingly enough, over the course of the lockdown, we saw a lot of cancer treatments getting additional priority - so there were fewer orthopaedic and lists, for example - that meant there was more theatre space, so actually there's been a lot of additional cancer surgery done over the course of the last month - but what has been missing has been the diagnostic work - so people being investigated for symptoms.
"People haven't been going to their GP because they've been so good at respecting the rules of the lockdown, and that has some unintended consequences that could actually be very harmful - so we need to make sure that during lockdown three, people that have symptoms get to see their GP.
"We actually know that general practices have been open, we know they've been working really hard over that time, but actually some GPs haven't been going to work because there haven't been the patients to see - because people have been staying home.
The time has come, Mr Jackson said, for DHBs to begin addressing the backlog.
"Some great work has been done by the Cancer Control Agency over the past month, working with senior doctors around the country, showing DHBs what they can do safely and what they should be doing - but it's up to the DHBs now to deliver that.
"We need to see the DHBs actually creating additional capacity - so that might mean additional weekend or evening lists for example, or optimal use of the private sector to make sure there's more tests that can be done.
"Our health system was already stretched, and if we expect our already-stretched health system just to catch up with no additional resources, people are going to suffer as a result of that.
"We really support the lockdown, that has been fantastic for people with cancer because they're a group who is really vulnerable to the effects of Covid-19.
"This overseas research has shown that if we delay our cancer diagnosis and treatment even by only a few additional months, hundreds of peoples' lives could be lost as a result of those delays.
"So the opportunity is now for us to make sure that we catch up, we don't get behind, and we don't have cancer casualties of Covid."
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