THE GREAT CANCER SCANDAL ; EXCLUSIVE Staff Shortage Means Results Are Being Sent to Doctors in SOUTH AFRICA
By BEN GOLDBY
CANCER victims in the Midlands are being forced to wait for vital life-saving treatments while scans are studied 5,700 miles away in South Africa.
A critical shortage of skilled doctors means that some patients are facing two-day delays instead of just two hours for crucial MRI scan results.
A nationwide crisis in the recruitment of radiographers has seen waiting lists in the Midlands grow and forced heavy caseloads onto fewer and fewer experts.
Latest available figures show that there are around 40,000 cancer patients across the region.
One who was treated at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital told the Sunday Mercury: “I had an MRI scan because I was suffering back pain after being diagnosed with my disease.
“They scanned my lower body but then sent the results off to a hospital in Johannesburg to be deciphered. They said there was nobody at the Worcestershire Royal who could do it.
“My consultant said the quickest way to get feedback was to e- mail the scans to South Africa rather than get someone in Britain involved.
“There were definitely serious staff shortages. I thought it was strange to send the scans all that way as it took two days to get the results back.
Funding
“Why couldn’t the hospital have employed someone here to do it straight away?”
It takes nine years to train British radiographers who interpret MRI results and offer cancer treatments to patients.
Many in the profession believe that a lack of Government funding has made it harder for hospitals to take on the highly specialised staff.
A study by the Society and College of Radiographers has revealed four out of five Midland radiography centres now consider themselves to be under-staffed.
Of 34 Midland hospitals questioned about the recruitment of radiographers, almost half said they had frozen vacancies or lost jobs – while four out of 10 admitted being under-manned.
Dr Steve Eldridge, 26, spent the past three years working as a radiographer at the Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC) in Nottingham, before leaving in September.
“It is crazy that MRI results are being sent to South Africa,” said Dr Eldridge, who is now working in Cambridgeshire.
“When an emergency scan is interpreted in Britain, it only takes two hours and then we can start to treat the patient straight away.
“It is a financial problem with the hospitals rather than there not being enough people who want to train to become radiographers.
“When we finished training students from Derby and University of Central England at the QMC, they were having to leave because there wasn’t enough money to take them on.
“Some of them spent a few months on the dole.
“This year 13 students qualified in July and only eight were taken on – and that wasn’t until late in December.”
The NHS admits that the scans are being sent abroad via an Oxford- based company called Alliance Medical – but claims the policy is cutting waiting times.
A Worcestershire Royal Hospital spokeswoman said: “The NHS has a five-year contract with Alliance Medical which has access to radiologists who report from overseas.
“This additional capacity has helped our reduction in waiting times.
“The Strategic Health Authority monitors our local contract and, in line with other Trusts in the West Midlands, we have the opportunity of referring patients for MRI scans to Alliance.”
A Government report into radiographer shortages is currently being debated in Westminster but there is anger at the delays in its publication.
Richard Evans, Chief Executive of the Society and College of Radiographers, said: “The Government completed a report into the problem in September but it has not been made public yet.
“The longer that report stays under wraps, the worse things will be for patients.
“It is being held back for some reason. My concern is that the Government thinks changes that desperately need to be made will be too expensive.
“The truth is that we do not have as many radiographers as other countries. For patients this means people have to travel further, and wait longer, to see an expert.
“At the moment there is a general shortage and, with the projected future need for radiotherapy, we are behind the rest of the developed world.”
He added: “Our radiographers are the most highly trained in the world. But if a unit is working hard just to keep their heads above water, they have less time to pioneer new techniques.
“The highest-tech equipment is not widely available in Britain and the speed at which new things are brought in is slower than other countries such as Japan, France and America.”
ben_goldby@mrn.co.uk
(c) 2007 Sunday Mercury; Birmingham (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.