NHS bureaucracy is impeding a cure for cancer

Cut out NHS bureaucracy to cure cancer - quite a long article by Professor Karol Sikora in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Our cancer tsar, Mike Richards, has done a great job - and a terrifically frustrating one at times - putting in place the infrastructure for a responsive, patient-centred service. But it has cost the taxpayer a huge amount of money, money that is now running out fast. So where is it all going wrong?

Cancer diagnosis and treatment is complex, and it requires the integration of many hospital departments: imaging and laboratories, outpatient services as well as treatment services.

And as we all know, the NHS is hopelessly inefficient. The last bastion of communism in Europe, it is obsessed with political correctness, multiple and complex targets and inter-professional disputes about working practices, and it boasts a hugely over-bureaucratised management system.

Imagine, if you can, how the money "flows" through the system: the Department of Health gives it to strategic health authorities which then pass it on to primary care trusts which use cancer networks to advise them before commissioning work from hospitals. And that's only the beginning of the bureaucratic nightmare.

The Healthcare Commission, the Royal Colleges and other professional bodies all vie for a slice of the paperwork action. All of these bodies are well served by secretarial staff while hospitals are cutting back. Several consultants now regularly share one hard-pressed secretary who tries to juggle all the demands. And that's before the patients call in sick.

Entrepreneurship and innovation is rapidly stifled and many of my colleagues simply give up trying to improve services.

No commercial consumer-focused industry behaves like this. If it did, it would go bust. Imagine a pizza chain creating a waiting list, developing complex rules of inequitable access to salads and sauces, and offering no choice in venue.

Just like delivering an excellent pizza, cancer care is a global business. Good cancer care is the same in Bombay, Boston and Bognor. Global organisations are emerging to deliver the necessary components of care in all environments. Stripping away the redundant paperclip pushers within the NHS is now essential.

There are huge challenges ahead for Britain. Despite spending several billions of pounds more on cancer, all the short-term metrics remain poor.

Access to diagnostic scans, outpatient clinic appointments for those who don't immediately obviously have cancer (who make up to 60 per cent of all patients), time to biopsy, time to first treatment, the availability of radiotherapy and access to new cancer drugs still compare unfavourably with the rest of Europe.

Perhaps the biggest scandal is that we are spending more per head on cancer than France, Italy or Germany. "

Most cancers are linked with obesity, which is often caused by sensitivity to salt, and fluid retention. You can lower your risk of most cancers by avoiding salt and salty food, because by doing this you reduce any excess fluid in your system and thus reduce any excess weight you are carrying. You can read here about the groups of people who are vulnerable to salt.

Lose weight and improve your health by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! - How to Lose weight!

See my website . The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Discovery of breast cancer genes opens door to new research.

Discovery of breast cancer genes will identify sufferers - Independent

Extract:

"Some scientists believe that the latest studies, published online in the journals Nature and Nature Genetics, are among the most important in the field of breast cancer since the first susceptibility genes for inherited forms of the disease were identified in the mid-1990s.

"This set of incredible scientific studies points to the future understanding of the genetics of cancer," said Professor Karol Sikora, a leading cancer specialist, who was not directly involved with the latest work.

"In theory, it allows you to look at thousands of people to study their genes and to find associations that we just didn't see before," Professor Sikora said.

Several teams of scientists took part in the latest studies, with the biggest led by Douglas Easton, a professor of cancer epidemiology at Cambridge University, who studied the DNA of nearly 50,000 women, half of whom had breast cancer.

The scientists used "DNA chips" to screen each person's genome for genetic variations that were found to be strongly linked with breast cancer. Small variations in four genes emerged as the most likely associations.

"We're very excited by these results because the regions we identified don't contain previously known inherited cancer genes," Professor Easton said.

"This opens the door to new research directions. Only very recent advances in technology have allowed us to carry out such a large comparison study," he said.

Already, the scientists are applying the same approach to other cancers, such as prostate, lung and bowel cancers, in the hope of identifying genetic changes that can trigger a higher risk of developing any of the diseases.

Breast cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer in British women with some 44,000 new cases diagnosed each year.

Inherited forms of breast cancer that are known to run in families account for between 5 and 10 per cent of cases. These genes - called BRCA1 and BRCA2 - were the first to be identified in the mid-1990s."

A safe, easy way to lower your risk of developing cancer is to stop eating salt and salty food and to eat plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables. This is because obesity is implicated in most cancers and obesity is principally caused by sensitivity to salt/sodium, resulting in sodium and water retention in the bloodstream. Fruit and fresh vegetables help because these foods are rich in potassium, and potassium displaces some of the sodium and its accompanying water from the bloodstream.

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Three doctors, including Karol Sikora, professor of cancer medicine at Imperial College School of Medicine, say a free health service is not possible.

Doctors' report claims: 'We no longer have free health care' - The Independent

Extract:

"Increasing numbers of patients are paying for private "top-up" treatments alongside NHS care, meaning the health service is no longer free, a report by leading doctors warns today.

The doctors have written to all three main political parties, and the Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt, outlining their concerns that the idea of a free health service is a "political mirage".

The study was written by three doctors, including Karol Sikora, professor of cancer medicine at Imperial College School of Medicine for the group Doctors for Reform, which has nearly 1,000 members, all working for the NHS.

It says that patients are developing "sophisticated approaches to purchasing upgrades to their care", including in key areas such as cancer and heart disease.

Publication of the report "Free at the point of delivery: reality or political mirage" comes the day after International Development Secretary Hilary Benn was heckled by union delegates as he tried to defend the Government's record on the NHS.

While politicians often claim care is free at the point of delivery "this mantra is now a political mirage", the report said. Doctors for Reform is urging a debate on future healthcare funding."


Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Superfoods

Food for life - Telegraph - Professor Karol Sikora, cancer expert

Extract:

"BROCCOLI
TOMATOES
CHILLIES
CABBAGE
ONIONS
CARROTS
BLUEBERRIES
APPLES
WATERCRESS
GREEN TEA"

Detail about quantities, researchers, etc are in the article.

An easy, cost-free way to reduce your risk of developing cancer is to give up sprinkling salt on your meals and cut down on convenience foods which are high in salt.

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Cancer specialist, Karol Sikora, wants NHS patients to be allowed to pay towards their NHS care.

Cancer specialist: 'Let NHS patients pay for their treatment' - Independent

Extract:

"A leading cancer specialist has warned that NHS patients risk losing out on an imminent revolution in cancer treatment unless they are allowed to pay towards the cost of their care.

Professor Karol Sikora, an expert in the management of cancer at Imperial College London, said at least six powerful cancer drugs would become available over the next year, costing at least £60,000 a year per patient. The "designer" cancer drugs, similar to Herceptin, are among the first to offer targeted therapy for cancers of the breast, lung, kidney and bowel."

"NHS patients are officially forbidden from buying their drugs privately as this would mix NHS and private care. The Department of Health says patients must choose whether to be treated on the NHS, and accept what the NHS offers, or to go private in which case all of their care, not just the drugs, must be paid for. A Department of Health spokesman said: "You cannot be both a NHS patient and a private patient at the same time. Co-payments would risk creating a two- tier health service and be in direct contravention with the principles and values of the NHS.""

"A survey by the charity Cancerbackup showed two-thirds of respondents intended to vote in the next general election on the basis of health policy and for 76 per cent cancer was the most important health issue."

If, as Cancerbackup's survey indicates, cancer is the most important health issue for most people, then it is a great pity that people are not told that lowering salt/sodium intake lowers the risk of almost all cancers - as well as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis/osteopenia, heart disease, heart attack, stroke, and a host of other chronic illnesses... - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)