Cancer operations are denied to thousands
of elderly patients "because of ageism"Daily Mail [UK], by Jenny Hope
Thousands of older cancer patients are being denied potentially life-saving surgery because of ageism in the NHS.
The chances of being operated on start falling in middle-age and plummet for those in their 70s and older,
an official study shows.
Experts blame age discrimination and poor access to specialist opinion in some areas.
This may explain why older people in Britain are less likely to survive than elsewhere.Surgery rates vary greatly, from 80 per cent of breast and uterine cancer cases to just 6 per cent of those
with liver cancer, researchers found.
Surgery rates drop for all cancers with age, but in many cancers this started from patients in their late 40s.
For cervical cancer, 58 per cent of patients in their 40s had surgery compared with 42 per cent in their 50s.
For women in their 80s, however, this dropped to 10 per cent.
The figures come from the National Cancer Intelligence Network, which was set up by the Department of Health.
They reinforce evidence showing older people still get a raw deal from the "institutionally ageist" NHS despite
official policies to stamp it out.
Lead researcher Mick Peake, of Glenfield Hospital, Leicester, said the decline in operating rates among the
middle-aged is particularly worrying as surgery has the biggest benefit in long-term survival.
Some patients are not referred to specialists even though their local hospital lacks the expertise, he added.
"There are places where the teams are just looking at the patients and saying "no"," he said. "
They sit there like in
the arena in the Colosseum and it's thumbs up or thumbs down." There are places "where I wouldn't send my cat"
because they do not offer the same level of surgical skills, he added.
The figures cover operations between 2004 and 2006, but there have been just marginal improvements since, he said.
Dr Peake, a lung specialist, said just 9 per cent of lung cancer patients had surgery five years ago, now up to 13 per cent.
In other countries, 20 per cent are being operated on.
More operations could save 1,500 lives a year, with similar savings in other cancers.
"We know that internationally our biggest gap in terms of survival is in the elderly," he said. "While you might argue
that your resources could be spent on younger age groups, if you can give a seventysomething-year-old ten or
15 years of active life, you should certainly offer it to them."
A report last year found women over 80 with breast cancer are up to 40 times less likely than young women to
get a diagnosis and treatment.
Care Services Minister Paul Burstow said: "There can be no place for age discrimination in the NHS.
We made this clear by not seeking any exceptions to the Equality Act."
Campaigner Michelle Mitchell, of Age UK, said: "
It is outrageous that ageist attitudes are condemning older
patients to an early, preventable death."
The NHS was set up to provide healthcare for all.
Meanwhile, 9,000 pensioners are missing out on potentially life-saving cancer tests because staff cannot cope
with the workload.
Routine bowel cancer screening for 70 to 75-year-olds should have been introduced nationwide last April,
but has been delayed until the autumn at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1367781/Cancer-operations-denied-thousands-elderly-patients-ageism.html
