Portsmouth has more emergency cancer patients than before the coronavirus pandemic began
MORE cancer patients are receiving emergency diagnoses than they were before the pandemic in Portsmouth, new figures show.
Across England, the percentage of cancer patients presenting as an emergency has fallen in the last year – though it remains above pre-pandemic levels, and Cancer Research UK says more must be done to diagnose cancers at an earlier stage.
An emergency presentation is when a diagnosis is given within 30 days of a hospital admission and does not include more managed routes, such as cancer screening or through a GP.
NHS Digital figures show 208 people first presented as having cancer in the NHS Portsmouth CCG area between October and December – of them, 48 were deemed to be an emergency.
It meant 23.1 per cent of patients were classed as an emergency – down from 30.5 per cent in the same period in 2020.
However, this is higher than the final quarter of 2019 (21.7 per cent), the last before the pandemic.