Women with suspected breast cancer say they're unable to book urgent checks at Kettering General Hospital amid ‘recruitment issues’
Women who have been referred to Kettering hospital for urgent breast checks say they have not been able to make appointments, leaving them in limbo.
People who have seen their GP after noticing changes in their breasts and who have suspected cancer are referred to the hospital’s breast service booking system. It is set up to ensure women are seen quickly to give them the best chance of recovery, and to reflect the impact on emotional wellbeing of the worry they experience while waiting for an appointment.
But women say that when they try to book an appointment to see a specialist they are unable to do so.
And once they are ‘in the system’ at KGH, they are then unable to book in at alternative hospitals that may have shorter wait times.
One woman told the Northants Telegraph after finding a lump in her breast and attending her GP, she had tried to book an appointment for the hospital’s breast service online, but had been faced with a message saying there were no appointments available.
She was then told that the service was unable to give her an estimate of when she would be seen, leaving her in limbo. She was also told that there were 50 people ahead of her in the queue waiting for an appointment.
She has now had to use private healthcare.
The hospital said that difficulties with recruitment and staff sickness meant that they were meeting targets in 50 per cent of cases, against the national aim of 75 per cent.
Until recently, NHS guidelines said that all women should be seen by a specialist within two weeks if their GP suspected breast cancer.
This two-week deadline has recently been replaced by a different diagnostic timeline.
Kettering General Hospital Group Chief Operating Officer Sarah Noonan said: “We apologise to patients who are currently finding it difficult to book appointments to be seen quickly by the breast service at Kettering General Hospital.
“This is because our service is currently under pressure due to staff sickness and recruitment issues. We are addressing these issues and from March are delivering our breast clinics in a new way to increase efficiency while also delivering them at weekends to address waiting times.
“We aim to deliver the new 28-Day Faster Diagnosis Standard – which replaced the NHS’s two-week cancer waiting time standard in 2023 – by the end of Spring.”
*The trust is currently delivering the standard for about 50% of breast service patients compared to the national target of 75%.”
North Northamptonshire has a much higher mortality rate for preventable cancers than the rest of the country – with 59.7 cases per 100,000 people compared to a national average of 48.6 cases per 100,000 people.