Calls for more 'Covid-free hubs' so life-saving cancer operations can go ahead
The President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCS) has called for more ‘Covid-free hubs’ so life-saving cancer operations can go ahead during the pandemic.
Professor Michael Griffin said cancer surgeons are facing an ‘impossibly difficult question’ of whether to operate or not, as the patient could be put at risk by catching Covid-19 post-operatively.
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Hide AdThe RCS, which represents 15,000 members in the UK, found in a survey that 87 percent of cancer surgeons have reduced operations, and that one third had stopped them completely.
More than half said that their NHS trust or health board had not set up a ‘Covid-free hub’ for these procedures to take place in, despite Public Health England guidance that they should be introduced to help limit the risk of transmission.
Prof Griffin said: "Surgeons are facing an extremely difficult time right now when it comes to performing surgery in what we call Covid-rich environments.
"Major surgeries on certain cancer types have very significant risks attached to them and performing them in an environment where coronavirus is present could potentially outweigh the risk of delaying surgery.
"If you don't, you could reduce the chances of curing a patient's cancer, but if you go ahead, you could be increasing their chance of catching Covid post-operatively and risking their recovery."
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "We are clear that vital cancer treatments and emergency, maternity and urgent care will continue where that is clinically agreed.
"We are working hard to ensure vital and urgent care remains, including the use of private hospitals to treat these NHS patients.
"However, we recognise the significant pressure that our NHS is under and we cannot underestimate the risks from Covid-19 particularly for some cancer surgical procedures and, therefore, for some cancer patients treatment plans may change over the coming weeks and months."