More on Cancer Treatment in the UK

I'm always interested to hear about cancer treatment in the UK because they have a national health service--something I so wish the United States would put in place. And also because most of what I hear from my UK readers is positive.

A woman who is getting treatment for breast cancer in the UK e-mailed me yesterday. This is what she had to say: "People here moan and moan about the NHS yet personally I've had good treatment, free at the point of contact."

But she went on to say that there were pretty long wait times to get radiation therapy--something I haven't experienced in the U.S.

Of course, we DO have people being denied treatment because they don't have health insurance. I'll be putting up a post on this shortly.

However, one serious issue here is the lack of capacity for radiotherapy. (Insufficient radiographers. Historical lack of capital expenditure: strategists believed radiotherapy would be outmoded by drug therapies. Government cancer treatment targets mean that when radiotherapy is the primary treatment in a slow-growing cancer like prostate, it still takes priority over a cancer like breast which has already had primary treatment, i.e. surgery.)

It's not untypical to wait thirteen weeks post-surgery for radiation treatment to start. The increased prospects of local recurrances are obviously worrying for patients who aren't being treated with chemotherapy in the interim.

I've asked her to ask her doctor if the long wait times might affect the outcome of her treatment, and I'll post her answer when it comes. I'll also ask my own radiation oncologist--I owe him an e-mail anyway.

Interesting to hear that prostate cancer patients get priority over breast cancer patients at the radiation machines! That would probably start a riot here.

@ Jeanne Sather 2008.

Comments

[Lindsay]

I am in the UK and am due to receive gamma knife radiosurgery for a brain tumour in two weeks time. I was anticiptating about a 6 month wait, because my London based oncolgist said that he had to get funding approved by my local (rural) health authority, and they would contest it because it is expensive.

Imagine my surprise and delight when the funding came through straight away.

So my conclusion is that the waiting times vary, depending on where you live, and how well funded and generous your local health authority are. Basically it's pot luck. I'm one of the lucky ones. I wish it was this quick for everybody.

Awesome blog, BTW. I read it every day.

[jeanne]

Lindsay--thanks so much for the kind words. I'm really glad you didn't have to wait to get your treatment. It does seem like wait times vary greatly from place to place in the UK.

[Vanda]

Greetings from across the pond.

From what I read in the news papers and see on TV, we have a post code lottery for treatment.
What drugs/treatment is given in one hospital could be very different from one post code to the other.

My husbands prostrate cancer was treated quickly, and he had excellent hospital treatment even though our normal local hospital doesn't give any cancer treatment. We had over a 50 mile drive when he had radiotherapy.

It looks like he is in remissions. In a few years will be classed as cured.

[jeanne]

That's interesting. So do people know this so that they can choose to live in a good post code (what we would call zip code)?

Prostate cancer has a very good cure rate, pretty close to 100 percent if caught early, so I hope you and your husband are feeling optimistic about the future.