CampaignsHealthcare RationingCancer Screening & TreatmentProstate cancer patients "face titanic battle" Prostate cancer patients "face titanic battle"
03/11/2006
Cancer patients across the UK are being forced to fight "titanic battles" for essential treatments and specialist care, The Prostate Cancer Charity has warned.
Speaking at the National Prostate Cancer Conference in London, John Neate, The Prostate Cancer Charity Chief Executive, said that a "short-sighted and devalued" NHS was compromising the care of prostate cancer patients by failing to provide them with consistent access to specialist nurses and NICE-approved treatments.
He said: "Over recent months, we've seen many nurses losing their jobs as a result of NHS financial deficits and it seems that the role of the Clinical Nurse Specialist is particularly under attack. There is mounting evidence that many are being asked to give up their specialist roles and to work instead as more generalist nurses on wards.
"Because of their high levels of skill and experience, Clinical Nurse Specialists are relatively expensive and an obvious target in a financially-pressurised NHS. Their work - dealing with information, advice and emotional support - can appear to be less tangible and a relative 'luxury' when compared with ward-based nurses.
"But it is a short sighted and devalued NHS that fails to appreciate the key role that Specialist Nurses play - not only in their direct support of men and their families, but in education, in development of clinical practice and in redesign of patient pathways through the complexities of NHS service organisation," he added.
Mr Neate added that men with prostate cancer were also having to take on "titanic battles" with their Primary Care Trusts to have tried and tested treatments like brachytherapy (a type of radiotherapy) and the chemotherapy drug, Taxotere (docetaxel), because of costs.
He said: "Whether the battle is for Taxotere or for brachytherapy or for any other form of tried and tested treatment, it cannot be acceptable that men and their families who are already having to deal with the tough news of a prostate cancer diagnosis, have to wrestle with NHS bureaucracy at the same time.
"Yes, there are cost implications and yes, I do understand the challenges for PCTs in balancing their books and in meeting the inexorably rising public demand for wider treatment choices. But we know that prostate cancer is catching up from a very low base and it deserves to be given special recognition for that in funding decisions."
Mr Neate called for a "responsive and well funded NHS" to invest in innovation in the NHS to bring about vital and much-needed changes in prostate cancer care and radically improve the lives of thousands of men living with the disease.
He added: "Innovation in prostate cancer is no optional extra. No luxury. It is essential both morally and economically and the prostate cancer movement must drive this argument hard."
And he insisted that his criticism was not of NHS health professionals "who bring about improvements in men's experience of prostate cancer" but of the "financial and structural environment they work in".
Mick Barrow, 63, a fisherman from Hastings, said: "I was devastated to be diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer - it was a complete shock. Fortunately I had an extremely experienced, helpful and understanding specialist research nurse who got me and my family through that extremely difficult time.
"I still had a lot to come to terms with and an uncertain future, the added strain of not knowing how long my specialist nurse would be in position to support me and then losing her because of NHS cuts and restructuring was really hard. I am extremely lucky to have a supportive family but a lot of fellas don't have any one who can talk these things through with."
Rod Grant, 64, from Marlow, Buckinghamshire underwent surgery for prostate cancer in October 2000.
He said: "Having a specialist nurse to talk to would have made a huge difference at the time of my diagnosis. When I was told I had prostate cancer the worst part for me was being overwhelmed by a range of treatment options I had little understanding of. I was very lucky to have a supportive wife to help me through my treatment decision, but it can be a very lonely time with no simple or obvious choices and not every man has access to such support."
Journalist Bill Elliott, 61, from Farnham, Surrey had to fight very hard to eventually get the brachytherapy treatment his consultant had recommended. What angers Bill so much is that the PCT refused to explain its decision for the rationing. He said: "They didn't even have the courtesy to write to me about why I couldn't have brachytherapy. They told me later that they never deal directly with patients. Why not? Is that because they want to remain unaccountable?"
If YOU have had problems receiving treatment for prostate cancer, let us have your story. email editorial@maturetimes.co.uk.