Cancer care in the UK

Hypothetical Question:

Looking for info on the quality of cancer screenings and cancer care in Scotland, Wales, and in England. Is this one of the areas where the NHS in the respective country is struggling? Is there any information available to show one country manages these cases better than the others? [Or areas within one of the countries?]

Let's say gastrointestinal cancer and not breast cancer.  Just a what-if situation.

I think it will be post code dependent, vary between NHS trusts in the various countries. This year our daughter has been screened for breast and skin cancer. Our good friend here had a suspicious lesion on his face removed and tested a few weeks ago. Last year my wife was screened for skin cancer and the year before that I had 3 suspicious lesions removed and tested.

I think it will be post code dependent, vary between NHS trusts in the various countries. This year our daughter has been screened for breast and skin cancer. Our good friend here had a suspicious lesion on his face removed and tested a few weeks ago. Last year my wife was screened for skin cancer and the year before that I had 3 suspicious lesions removed and tested.

So, in other words, it's a crapshoot?

So, in other words, it's a crapshoot?

Yes. Did you expect anything different?

In February this year I was at a restaurant with the friend I mentioned when he took ill. When we got to the car he collapsed to the ground and the barman who had come out with us called 999. He was almost non-verbal and I had to do most of the talking and the dispatcher said they would sent an ambulance.  Within 5 minutes my friend said he thought he could get into the back of the car (it was very cold) and I drove him home. The barman called the ambulance to give them an update and pass on his address. The ambulance was there shortly after I delivered him home to his wife and by that time he was feeling much better. They gave him a full checkup including ekg and he insisted that he would be okay and go to the doctors in the morning.

He is aged 81 and has had 2 open heart surgeries to replace the aortic valve.(age 60 and 75). He also had a hip replacement last year, all on the NHS.  Over the following weeks he went through a battery of tests including cancer screening of his whole digestive system including bladder and colon. Conclusion of his issue was a bad bladder infection. After a couple of months he was fully recovered and we resumed our weekly outing to our favorite restaurant where we have bar snacks and a beer, and set the world straight.  We have been good friends for the last 46 years, he and his family being neighbors of hours when we first moved here in 1979.

Last year we went on an adventure cruise and my wife fell while coming down a hillside on an island in St Kilda badly damaging her ankle. The ship’s doctor didn’t think it was broken and we finished our cruise a couple of days later. The morning after we arrived home I drove her to our local walk-in medical center. We got there at 8:10 and I drove home (4 miles) expecting it to take several hours. It only took her about 45 minutes. She was triaged immediately and saw a doctor when the medics arrived at 8:30. An x-ray confirmed no break and they re-strapped her ankle. We were both back home by 9:30 and she recovered over the next few weeks.

Yes. Did you expect anything different?

I thought it possible that some regions were stretched more thinly re: available resources than others, and that since the NHS is different in Scotland than in England (and, by extension Wales?) that there would be some general knowledge of where the proverbial Black Holes of Calcutta were in each country. And the opposite, as well - what areas are known for a higher standard of care. 

I do see from visiting with Dr. Google with a search for top cancer treatment facilities in the UK that the list that comes up tend to be in London.

The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust (London)
The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) (London)
The Christie NHS Foundation Trust (Manchester)
The Francis Crick Institute (London)
Cancer Research UK (CRUK) - not a facility, per se

Looks like time for some serious academic research, I guess, unless someone happens to have a sense of it all and can share that info.

I did see - "Scotland's cancer treatment waiting times worst on record." https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx234drv3dgo

I thought it possible that some regions were stretched more thinly re: available resources than others, and that since the NHS is different in Scotland than in England (and, by extension Wales?) that there would be some general knowledge of where the proverbial Black Holes of Calcutta were in each country. And the opposite, as well - what areas are known for a higher standard of care. 

I do see from visiting with Dr. Google with a search for top cancer treatment facilities in the UK that the list that comes up tend to be in London.

The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust (London)
The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) (London)
The Christie NHS Foundation Trust (Manchester)
The Francis Crick Institute (London)
Cancer Research UK (CRUK) - not a facility, per se

Looks like time for some serious academic research, I guess, unless someone happens to have a sense of it all and can share that info.

I did see - "Scotland's cancer treatment waiting times worst on record." https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx234drv3dgo

My wife’s sister lives near Edinburgh and their trust certainly seems a LOT worse than ours. Scotland still don’t have their test results or doctor consultations available online.  Where we live then within 24 hours you can see all your detailed blood tests plus any GP notes from visits you have. It’s great to have such easy access. Unfortunately we have both needed several GP appointments over this past year but have been very pleased with the outcomes.

Yeah, I can believe that. When we were there everything was paper-driven at our GP.  To get a prescription we had to go home from an appointment, and then come back the next day to get a paper copy to take to Boots, and then wait a day or two for the meds if they were not in-stock.  I think later the Boots near us would go and collect the prescription paper for me if I phoned them, and then call us when the meds were ready, but it's been a while and it's all getting fuzzy now. It was nice because I was pretty much on foot, without having a car there.

I was horrified, though, to find out that if I had to go to the hospital it was going to be that Death Star new one across the Clyde (Queen Elizabeth Hosp?) that had kids getting sick/killed, while inpatients, from nasties in the water supply and pigeon droppings in the air system. (And a smattering of incompetence.) The GP did want to send me once, and was going to call for an ambulance to take me there from her office, but when I found out that's where they'd take me I refused. Took a cab home instead.  I told her I'd happily go to the one over by City Center, but she said my postcode had to use QE2. If the problem had continued I've had gone private and used the private hospital very close to where we lived. Thankfully, whatever the heck was wrong resolved itself without intervention.

The Death Star was also a major bus transfer point, and there were many days I transferred buses there to get to IKEA. They'd managed to build the main buildings so that they funneled the wind - I was literally blown over one day. Hadn't had that happen since I was like two years old! Very, very strange planning around that place.

I did read in that article I linked that the best wait times in Scotland were at the Lanarkshire NHS, though.

In England when our GP orders a prescription by default it goes to our online provider “Pharmacy2You” and arrives by post a few days later unless it is a one-off urgent prescription then we get a paper version. For repeat prescriptions we simply order them as needed through the NHS app. Something my wife’s sister would dearly love to have as she is on lots of meds due to open heart surgery in 2020.

My wife’s sister lives near Edinburgh and their trust certainly seems a LOT worse than ours. Scotland still don’t have their test results or doctor consultations available online.  Where we live then within 24 hours you can see all your detailed blood tests plus any GP notes from visits you have. It’s great to have such easy access.

This annoys the crap out of me!

Wales you definitely do not want to live in if you're at high risk for any cancers. The waiting times here are terrible and getting worse.

I will say for where I lived previously in England anytime I proactively contacted my doctor about anything concerning they were quick to investigate. In Wales I approached my new GP with concerns that could be indicative of a type of cancer (or many other things), no physical exam or blood work and they actually laughed at me for being concerned. Needless to say it's been difficult to follow up with a different doctor even though I need to.

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Thanks, this is helpful AUKY. 

Sorry the Wales medics are gaslighting you. 

Hypothetical Question:

Looking for info on the quality of cancer screenings and cancer care in Scotland, Wales, and in England. Is this one of the areas where the NHS in the respective country is struggling? Is there any information available to show one country manages these cases better than the others? [Or areas within one of the countries?]

Let's say gastrointestinal cancer and not breast cancer.  Just a what-if situation.

My father-in-law was diagnosed with colon cancer on 20 March of this year. They said he must have had it a while due to how large the tumour was. He had been feeling unwell for months, but my husband's stepmum thought it might just be IBS or something. She finally convinced him to go to the doctor in late February or early March and when they found blood in his stool they ordered the scan. After they found the tumour, they ordered a CT scan of the rest of him and found out it hadn't spread. He had planned to start chemo in April to try to shrink down the tumour. Unfortunately, he ended up in hospital a few days before Easter. He had been in so much pain that he couldn't get off his sofa. At first the hospital told his wife that the options were to either operate or put him in pallative care, but they were urging pallative care. The next update was that they were unable to operate because the cancer had spread quickly (it had been less than 2 weeks since the CT scan had found it HADN'T spread). He only gave him weeks to live, but he ended up declining and passing away on 26 April at a hospital in Worcester. Luckily my husband had been able to go up to Worcester the weekend before, although his dad was tired and didn't really want to see anyone. If he had initially gone to the GP sooner, he likely would have gotten diagnosed with cancer faster and able to start chemo. I had looked up the doctor who specialised in colon cancer, and he seemed like a very good doctor. So, I think the NHS did a good job with him; it's just that he hadn't gone to the GP early enough. He was only 71 when he died.

I'm so sorry to hear about your loss. Even if they were 71, it's never easy to say goodbye.


Thanks for the info.