- The Guardian Monday 2 May 2022
(^10) National
NHS shortages delay cancer
care for tens of thousands
Ian Sample
Science editor
Tens of thousands of patients are still
waiting to start cancer treatment in
England because of disruption
caused by the pandemic, according
to NHS fi gures, with medical charities
calling on the government to tackle
“chronic” staff shortages in the
health service.
After a dramatic slump in referrals
in 2020, the number of people being
investigated for cancer has bounced
back , data from NHS England and
NHS Improvement shows, up from
2.4 million to a record 2.66 million.
But while referrals have surged,
the number of patients starting treat-
ment for the disease ha s risen more
modestly, from 313,000 before the
Covid crisis to 315,000 in the past 12
months, according to the fi gures.
“We have seen record numbers of
people coming forward for checks
in the last year, but we know there
are still at least 30,000 who haven’t
started treatment due to the pan-
demic, so it’s vital that we keep these
referral rates high,” said Dame Cally
Palmer, national cancer director for
NHS England.
The NHS has doubled its spend-
ing on awareness campaigns and
invested in cancer symptom hot-
lines, mobile clinics and one-stop
shops for tests to cope with the ris-
ing demand for checks. The aim is
to spot the disease at an early stage
when treatments and surgery are
often more successful.
Medical charities said it was “vital”
for government to address chronic
understaffi ng and bolster the num-
ber of specialists in the NHS as it
“declares a national war on cancer”
in its 10-Year Cancer Plan.
Minesh Patel, head of policy at
Macmillan Cancer Support , said: “It
is reassuring to see record numbers
of people coming forward ... for these
life-saving checks. However, people
living with cancer are often miss-
ing out on crucial care as a result of
chronic NHS understaffi ng .”
MPs on the Commons health and
social care committee last month crit-
icised the government’s failure to
tackle NHS staff shortages, warning
that hundreds of thousands of cancer
patients in England faced a late diag-
nosis in the coming years.
Helena Horton
Environment reporter
The green spaces of England and
Wale s are worth £25.6bn in “welfare
value” a year, according to a study
funded by the Department for Envi-
ronment, Food and Rural Aff airs.
Scientists have said this fl ies in the
face of councils’ cuts to nature areas.
The researchers ha ve created an
outdoor recreation valuation ( Orval)
tool which assesses the value pro-
vided by each park, wood, riverside
walk, country path and beach in
England and Wales. It also identifi es
which residents enjoy the benefi ts
and when they do so.
Researchers, who ranked each park
in terms of value for money and well-
being, discovered that small parks
delivered the highest recreation
value , and that key drivers of outdoor
recreation were the weather, access
to good green spaces and dog owner-
ship. They found the 10 most valuable
sites were in or around urban areas.
Hyde Park in London, Sutton Park in
Birmingham and Blaise Castle estate
in Bristol are the top three.
Brett Day , a professor of environ-
mental economics at the University of
Exeter and one of the report’s authors ,
said: “ [This study] puts a fi gure to the
value of our green spaces: £25.6bn a
year. [This] stands in stark contrast to
the deep cuts in green space budgets
across UK councils that threaten to
condemn our green spaces to neglect
and disrepair. The Orval tool makes
explicit the very real ... losses people
endure as a consequence.”
Pointing out that recreational
access was not equal for everyone,
he said: “ Orval can show decision-
makers how to locate new facilities in
a way that will provide the most ben-
efi t to more disadvantaged groups .”
The report found dog owners
were four times more likely to use
the spaces, but people from ethnic
minorit ies and in less affl uent soci-
oeconomic groups were less likely ,
even w ith the same opportunities.
A white person is 1.8 times more
likely to visit a recreation site than a
black person, and the richest socioec-
onomic group is 1.6 times more likely
to visit than the poorest.
Green space
worth total
of £25.6bn
to residents,
study fi nds
▲ Windsor Great Park in Berkshire
is one of the 10 most valuable
recreation sites , the study found
PHOTOGRAPH: NATHANIEL NOIR/ALAMY
Top 10 sites
Hyde Park,
London
£24,101,
Sutton Park,
Birmingham
£15,627,
Blaise
Castle
estate, Bristol
£12,921,
Hampstead
Heath, London
£12,149,
Windsor
Great Park,
Windsor
£9,026,
Croxteth Hall,
Liverpool
£8,496,
Ashton Court,
Bristol
£7,773,
Southampton
Common,
Southampton
£7,408,
Bute Park ,
Cardiff
£7,258,
Greenwich
Park, London
£7,090,