Professor Pat Price, adviser to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Radiotherapy, said: “Who gets to decide whose life is more important? Trusts do not seem to have been told to protect cancer services and now we are seeing cancer cases being deprioritised due to lack of staffing.
“We need guidance from the Government about the need to protect cancer patients to stop trusts pinching cancer staff to treat Covid.”
She added: “We already have a major cancer crisis with up to 100,000 cases untreated due to the earlier lockdowns. Now the same thing is happening all over again.
“The current cancer recovery plan has been overtaken by events and is simply out of date. The cancer taskforce does not have the remit or investment powers to tackle what is a monumental cancer crisis. Only a revised plan, emergency investment together with a strong message to patients that they should still present with symptoms, will avoid catastrophe.”