14 2GM Monday June 29 2020 | the times
News
Private hospitals are bracing them-
selves for a “surge” in NHS cancer
patients in August, amid calls for the
Treasury to release funds for a new
contract between the health service
and the independent sector.
The NHS waiting list is expected to
reach ten million by the end of the year,
with experts saying that it will need to
use private hospitals to tackle it.
There has been a drop in referrals
from GP surgeries, and in diagnostic
tests carried out, including for cancer,
as patients put off seeking treatment
over fears of contracting Covid-19.
Karol Sikora, chief medical officer at
Rutherford Health, one of the largest-
cancer centre networks in the private
sector, said: “We’re expecting a surge in
cancer patients that are fully diagnosed
to come probably at around August.
“That’s when the three private cancer
services that exist, the private networks
— and there’s 26 radiotherapy services
in the private sector and about 65 places
you can have private chemotherapy —
they’ll kick back into action, and they’ll
do NHS work.”
He expected it to be “at tariff” or at
the price the NHS expects to pay its
hospitals for a course of treatment.
“It is vital we get going,” Professor
Sikora said. He fears thousands of early
stage cancers could progress to being
untreatable if there are further delays.
Under an initial contract in March
the NHS bought up almost all of the in-
dependent sector’s beds, staff and
equipment, to create extra capacity in
case it was needed to deal with the pan-
demic. The NHS has not yet given the
month’s notice to end the arrangement.
Private hospitals expect surge in
cancer patients as NHS struggles
Kat Lay Health Correspondent NHS England, independent provid-
ers, the Department of Health and
Social Care, and the Treasury are nego-
tiating a second phase of contracts, for
which private providers are expected to
bid for specific parcels of work, such as
performing thousands of knee or hip
replacements in a certain area to help
tackle the backlog.
The Royal College of Surgeons
(RCSE) and Cancer Research UK
wrote last week to Rishi Sunak, the
chancellor, urging him to release fund-
ing for the new deal.
Derek Alderson, president of the
RCSE, and Sarah Woolnough, execu-
tive director of policy and information
at Cancer Research, wrote: “Barring
NHS use of independent sector capa-
city would consign NHS patients who
are in need, and in pain, to even longer
waits than they already face.”
Sir Simon Stevens, head of the NHS,
has praised staff for treating 50,
cancer patients in March and April dur-
ing the pandemic.
He said: “NHS staff have done every-
thing in their power to make sure that
the NHS can continue care for patients
who needed treatment and this has
happened, which is testament to their
incredible hard work and dedication.
“We know people have been anxious
about coming forward for checks dur-
ing the pandemic but now is the time to
get checked — it could save your life.”
Sir Simon said of a new specialist
cancer hospital in Liverpool: “This hos-
pital will provide world-class care to
people with cancer across the region
and it is timely as it will also help to
support the NHS response to the pan-
demic by allowing vital tests and treat-
ment to go ahead in a safe space.”
A type of MRI scan regularly used
on heart disease patients could also
be used to pick out aggressive
cancers in children, according to
new research.
The imaging technique, known as
T1 mapping, measures the
interaction of water molecules
inside cells at a microscopic level.
In heart disease, this allows
doctors to assess damage to heart
muscle tissue. Scientists at the
Institute of Cancer Research,
London (ICR) have tested it for use
in children with high-risk forms of
neuroblastoma, a type of childhood
tumour.
In mice with the cancer, they
found areas with high T1 values, or
where water molecules behaved
“more freely”, corresponded to
hotspots of more aggressive cancer
cells that were likely to spread and
grow faster. Areas with low T
scores had more benign or dead
tissue.
They found that the scans could
assess the response of the mice to
two types of cancer drug — alisertib
and vistusertib. When the drugs
stopped the tumours growing, there
was an accompanying decrease in
T1 values.
Scanning children as they
undergo treatment could allow
doctors to see if a treatment wasChild tumour breakthrough
Kat LayBirds take
40 winks
to keep safe
Rhys Blakely Science CorrespondentIn the avian world it seems that
catching up on rest really does involve
40 winks.
Scientists have observed flocks of
oystercatchers on the beaches of north
Wales to learn more about how they re-
main vigilant while roosting.
The findings show that noisy
humans force them to sleep with one
eye open. The researchers, from Ban-
gor University, found that the birds
constantly kept a look-out using a strat-
egy known as “peeking”.
“This involves opening one eye inter-
mittently and keeping half of the brain
active to monitor their surroundings,”
Graeme Shannon, a lecturer in zoology
at the university, said. “One hemi-
sphere of the brain remains awake and
alert — and yet they are still gaining
sleep.” The oystercatchers peeked
about 12 times each minute.
Oystercatchers’ predators include
birds of prey and foxes. However, the
animals they were most wary of were
dogs and their human owners. Rates of
peeking reached their highest levels
when dog-walkers were in sight. Pass-
ing boat traffic also caused them to
peek more.
The study was published in the Jour-
nal of Zoology.‘Spend on
broadband,
not roads’
Ben Webster Environment EditorBillions of pounds allocated for roads
should be redirected to upgrading
broadband coverage across the country
and other measures to promote a
greener economy, a think tank says.
The Green Alliance says the UK can-
not afford to expand its roads if it is to
hit its target to be carbon neutral by- Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, said
in March that £27 billion would be spent
over five years on upgrading 4,
miles of road, improving 100 junctions
and better links to 20 ports and airports.
The alliance said: “Even with the
2035 phase-out date for petrol and die-
sel cars, we can’t shift to electric fast
enough to meet our carbon budgets: we
can’t afford further road expansion.”
It also called for projects to make it
easier and safer to walk or cycle and in-
vestment in electric car chargers.
A separate study has found that
2.2 million jobs are at risk from the shift
to a low-carbon economy unless work-
ers acquire new skills.
Miners, oil and gas industry workers,
car mechanics, plumbers and City trad-
ers are among those who will have to
retrain as industries are transformed by
the legally binding target of being
carbon neutral by 2050, research says.
A coalition of 24 mayors and council
leaders is calling on the government to
commit itself to investing in helping
workers gain “green skills”. The UK 100
Resilient Recovery Task Force, in-
cludes mayors and leaders nationwide.
Gas engineers must retrain to fit heat
pumps, welders in the oil industry could
build wind farms and City traders could
be “carbon traders”. The figures were
compiled by the Grantham Research
Institute on Climate Change and the
Environment at the London School of
Economics.
Peace song Fiona Kennedy sings Stronger for the Storm, a new work, at Dunnottar Castle on the Aberdeenshire coast on the anniversary of the Treaty of Versailles
JANE BARLOW/PAworking or not, and move on to try
something else if necessary, the
researchers said.
The scientists plan to move on to
human trials.
Dr Yann Jamin, who led the study,
said: “It is easy to perform and
analyse T1 MRI scans, and they
could be used to provide insights
into many aspects of cancer biology
— and help doctors to design
tailored treatments based on how
aggressive a tumour appears to be.”
The study was published today in
the journal Cancer Research and was
funded by Children with Cancer
UK, Cancer Research UK and
Rosetrees Trust.
Paul Workman, chief executive of
the ICR, said: “It’s exciting that
we’ve shown that a scan widely used
to image the heart has the potential
to greatly improve our
understanding and treatment of
cancer too.
“There is already a lot of
experience in using this technique
in NHS hospitals and I hope we can
rapidly move to assessing its use in
clinical trials of cancer patients.
“It’s vital that we find ways to
improve treatments for aggressive
childhood cancers like
neuroblastoma — and also that we
spare children unnecessary side
effects by minimising exposure to
drugs that do not seem to be
working.”