Thousands of patients in Kent are still waiting for a cancer screening after the coronavirus pandemic caused a major backlog.

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust had 8,000 cases still outstanding as the service gets back on its feet, Kent County Council's (KCC) health and overview scrutiny committee was told yesterday.

Sevenoaks county councillor Nick Chard (Con), who revealed the case numbers, said: "The waiting lists are growing. The diagnostic screening for breast screening is getting longer. The NHS is not catching

up."

After the meeting, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust said that some face-to-face health services have restarted over the last three months, with the intention to be at normal capacity by the end of August.

A trust spokesman said: "We are quickly and carefully reviewing all of our patients to ensure we treat those who have greater clinical need first and we would like to thank them for their patience and understanding.”

Wilf Williams, accountable officer at NHS Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) admitted that restarting bowel and breast cancer screenings were two of the "greatest challenges" for the NHS.

A screening means checking your body for cancer before you have or show any symptoms. Tests may find breast, cervical, and colorectal cancers early, when treatment is likely to work best.

On the potential restart of services in Kent, Mr Williams said yesterday he is hopeful that bowel screening services will be reinstated next week in East Kent hospitals and on August 7 across West Kent sites.

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust says its breast screening service for high risk patients restarted on April 27 - a month after lockdown started - followed by a more general service on July 13. The bowel cancer screening service has been running since May 19.

However, KCC's health and overview scrutiny committee questioned NHS bosses around the reported delays and asked for more details to be provided to them in two months' time.

Speaking during the virtual public meeting yesterday, Cllr Chard said: "I accept there are concerns about Covid-19 but work must be carried out with full personal protective equipment (PPE) anyway.

"There seems to be a segment of the NHS which is not the glamorous A&E and coronavirus frontline and has rather been forgotten.

"I think it's up for us to highlight it and ensure it does not bounce back to bite us in the future. I think it's right we keep on top of the whole diagnostic screening and have clarity if we are running behind or not."

Cllr Paul Bartlett (Con), the chairman of KCC's HOSC committee, added: "I think you are absolutely right and don't think it is unreasonable to ask for that at our next meeting in September."

After the meeting, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust responded to some of the comments made by Kent councillors yesterday.

A spokesman for the trust said: “Our priority over the last few months has been ensuring that everyone who needs cancer treatment and urgent and essential care has been able to get it when they need it.

“At the start of the pandemic, to reduce the spread of the virus and protect our patients, the public and our staff, some non-urgent appointments, diagnostic procedures and planned surgeries were postponed or replaced with telephone or video consultations."

KCC's next health scrutiny committee meeting has been scheduled for Thursday, September 17, starting from 10am.

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