posted June 26, 2006 02:37 PM            

There is a tipping point in most fatal diseases.

Anyone want to bet what would have happened if we had HillaryCare here when her husband, Commander Corruption needed heart bypass surgery a couple of years ago?

Bet your ass, Commander Corruption would have gone to the front of the line...no wait OR been flown to a nation with competent physicians and surgeons bypassing HillaryCare altogether.

The story of long waits to see physicians, long waits for diagnostic services and long waits for actual treatment are the same...in Canada, in Great Britain, in Scotland and everywhere else with a National Healthcare system. The reason is that it pits government employees against doctors, drives the competent, well trained out of business, sometimes making private practice against the law.

If you vote for Hillary or anyone else promoting a National Health Care system, pray hard you never develop heart disease, cancer, liver disease, kidney disease or any other life threatening disease because you might die waiting for treatment. Many already have.

Of course, as always when utter and complete incompetence is broadcast, THEY'RE GOING TO FIX IT. Except, they can't fix it. There are not enough doctors, not enough diagnostic equipment or labs, not enough technicians, not enough of anything to fix it. Doctors and other highly skilled professionals won't work long or won't work at all for the government. They immigrate and get the hell out, or choose another profession outside of government service.

Revealed: the true scale of NHS cancer waiting times
EDDIE BARNES
POLITICAL EDITOR

Despite repeated promises and billions of pounds invested, the hospital-by-hospital breakdown reveals some patients are waiting more than a year between GP referral and treatment.

The statistics also expose massive variations in average waiting times across Scotland, with some units beginning treatment for lung cancer in 10 days while others take 10 weeks.

Ministers last night admitted the situation was "unacceptable". Health minister Andy Kerr ordered health boards to explain the lengthy delays and widespread variations.

But one of Europe's leading cancer specialists, Professor Gordon McVie, said the NHS could provide "no excuses" for routinely delaying potentially life-saving treatment.

And one health board, NHS Lothian, issued an unreserved apology for a bowel cancer patient waiting over 300 days between referral and treatment.

Cancer claims the lives of 15,000 Scots every year, and one in three people will fall prey to the disease. Ministers have made combating cancer one of their top health priorities, and rapid treatment is seen as an essential plank in that strategy.

Scotland on Sunday has obtained the latest Scottish Executive figures for 32 hospitals, showing the time between referral and treatment for 10 different types of cancer.

The figures, for patients diagnosed between October and December last year, reveal that:

• Eighteen out of 32 hospitals forced bowel cancer patients to wait an average of two months or more to receive treatment. In the most extreme case, a patient at Monklands hospital in Airdrie was finally treated 335 days after being referred for treatment by a GP.

• Patients diagnosed with bladder, prostate and kidney cancer suffered extraordinary delays. The 13 patients treated at Glasgow Royal Infirmary waited an average of 168 days for treatment. A patient at Falkirk and District Royal Infirmary waited 379 days.

• Six breast cancer patients at Belford hospital, Inverness, waited an average of 80 days before getting treatment for a disease that becomes virtually incurable if it spreads.

• There remains a 'postcode lottery' of cancer in Scotland. The 18 bowel cancer patients at Ayr hospital waited an average of 18 days, compared with the 127 days suffered by those at Wishaw General.

One health board chairman last night launched an immediate investigation after he was confronted with the case of a bowel cancer patient at the Western General, Edinburgh, who waited 305 days before being treated. The delay has been blamed on an "administrative error".

Brian Cavanagh, chairman of NHS Lothian, said: "This is completely unacceptable. I have already asked for a report into how this occurred and have asked for an assurance from the University Hospital Division that it will not happen again."

Mike Grieve, Director of Operations, University Hospitals Division, NHS Lothian, added: "I would like to apologise unreservedly for this lengthy delay."

Kerr has now asked all cancer services across Scotland to probe the long waits, demanding that they show evidence that any long delays can be explained. "I have asked cancer services across Scotland to examine very long waits and confirm that there were indeed clinical or other relevant reasons for long delays over six months," he said.

"Long waits are unacceptable. If a patient's condition demands

immediate access to treatment, I would expect that need to be recognised by clinicians and acted upon appropriately. Patients should be diagnosed and have their treatment according to their individual clinical need and personal needs."

Ministers have set a two-month maximum limit for treatment for the most urgent cases. Executive officials and health chiefs insist that for many 'non-urgent' cases, which are included in the new figures, waits may be longer because patients could be too ill or too frail to receive aggressive treatment.

But one of the world's leading cancer experts said this could not be used as an excuse. He said that in all but a tiny number of cases, a modern-day health service should treat cancer patients within two months of referral.

Professor Gordon McVie, consultant to the European Institute of Oncology, said: "For the majority of common cancers there is cut-and-dried, five-star evidence to suggest that delay in treatment will affect prognosis and the likelihood of a cure."

He added: "It is nonsense to suggest that there are clinical reasons for lots of delays. That will only affect a very small number of people. Things are slowly getting better in Scotland but they were shocking to start with. Both Scotland and England are not up to acceptable standards of efficiency."

Kerr has now identified cancer waiting times as among his top priorities, with ministers desperate to avoid damaging statistics in the run-up to next year's Scottish Parliament elections. Opposition parties agreed the figures revealed a postcode lottery of care. SNP health spokeswoman Shona Robison said: "Depending on where you live decides how long it takes for you get treated. There are too many patients being let down because of the performance of the health boards which they live within."