NHS patients are getting CANCER because of record 7.2m-long waiting list, nation’s top GP warns

NHS patients are developing cancer while waiting for treatment, Britain’s leading general practitioner has warned.

Professor Kamila Hawthorne, president of the Royal College of GPs, claimed massive delays in receiving hospital care also means Britons are in so much pain they can’t even climb the stairs.

She wants the ailing health service to adopt an Amazon-style system so patients can track exactly where they are on the waiting list.

Implementing such a system would reassure patients who are ‘anxious, worried and frustrated’, Professor Hawthorne said.

NHS data shows there were as many as 7.22 million patients queuing for routine procedures in England in February, nearly 3 million more than pre-Covid levels.

These patients include those with possible signs of cancer, heart problems, or patients awaiting hip or knee replacement.

Speak against The protectorProfessor Hawthorne, said patients saw their health deteriorating as a direct result of the delays in hospital care – for which they had been referred.

Professor Hawthorne, representing 54,000 GPs, revealed that queues left patients feeling ‘helpless and forgotten’.

She said: ‘Patients getting sicker while on the waiting list is something GPs see and worry about because the risk to the patient is so much higher.

“It is inevitable that some incarcerated people will get sicker, because that is the nature of illness.

“It could be someone waiting for a hip or knee replacement. They come to you and say ‘it’s been three months and I haven’t heard anything’.

“Often the waiting times for orthopedics are a year or two, so you know it’s going to be a long time.”

She added, “Then they’ll tell you their toilet is upstairs and they have to crawl to get there.”

“Or it could be that their hip or knee pain has reached the point where they can’t sleep at night.” That’s the kind of thing we hear.’

Professor Hawthorne added that a tracking system – similar to the one used by online retailers after goods have been shipped – would help patients understand where they are on the list.

She said the NHS would implement such a system in an ‘ideal world’.

It comes as damning data released last month revealed that suspected cancer patients must wait up to two years for a diagnosis and a year to begin treatment.

At the time, charities warned that the ‘unacceptable’ delays could give tumors time to spread, reduce survival rates and make treatment more expensive.

According to NHS guidelines, patients should be seen within 18 weeks of being referred to a specialist.

However, this treatment goal has not been achieved since 2016.

Tomorrow the government will publish its recovery plan for primary care, intended to tackle the harrowing access problem for general practitioners.

Ministers have already announced that GP surgeries will receive £240 million for new telephone systems, so that patients will no longer have to deal with betrothed tones or long queues while competing for 8am appointments.

Receptionists will also receive more training to direct callers to the physician best suited to their needs.

It comes after surveys showed that public satisfaction with GPs has reached an all-time low, with patients particularly frustrated by difficulties accessing a doctor and getting through over the phone.

An average size practice of 10,000 patients often receives over 100 calls in the first hour each Monday, but many patients may be seen by someone other than a GP.