Photo: Getty Images By Contributor 7th April 2021
More cross disciplinary integration is required in the training of clinical cancer specilists, writes
Prof Niall O’Higgins
For over 30 years multidisciplinary meetings have become routine in the planning of care for patients with cancer. This arrangement requires all relevant medical specialists in the diagnostic and therapeutic disciplines to confer (usually and preferably by physical attendance) during a meeting where diagnostic issues, staging processes, and therapeutic interventions concerning each patient are discussed.
In recent years the value of these interactions has been improved by the development of multi-professional meetings, at which a wide range of additional experts also takes part, including specialists in nursing, social work, occupational therapy, onco-psychology, rehabilitation and palliative care.
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Tens of thousands of cancer sufferers denied treatment in UK during pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the dire situation facing tens of thousands of UK cancer patients. At the end of December 2020 the worst month for medical backlogs since records began in 2007 almost 4.52 million patients in England were waiting to start hospital treatment. 224,205 people had been waiting more than a year.
Tens of thousands of cancer sufferers are among those waiting. Hundreds of them will die needlessly because of the Conservative government’s criminal response to the pandemic.
An article by the Cancer Research UK charity highlights the increasing numbers of patients waiting for cancer referrals, diagnoses and treatments. The article notes that, since the onset of the pandemic, waiting times for screening, tests and treatment have been steadily increasing. Roughly 40,000 fewer people started treatment for cancer in 2020 compared with previous years. According to Jon Shelton, senio