Deprived areas such as West Dunbartonshire have been worst affected by under-diagnosis due to the Covid pandemic, according to new figures.
Public Health Scotland has laid bare the scale of the cancer crisis across the country, showing thousands of missing cases and a sharp fall in early diagnosis.
Cancer incidence fell from being 33 percent higher in deprived areas pre-pandemic to 30 percent higher in 2020 compared with more affluent regions.
The report suggests the figures are due to a “greater level of under-diagnosis” in deprived areas, such as West Dunbartonshire rather than there being less incidences of cancer.
More specifically, there was a greater fall in the rates of lung, breast, prostate and colorectal cancers in 2020 in the most deprived areas compared with the least deprived regions.
PHS attributed this to the fact that people from deprived areas were more likely to catch Covid and more likely to die from it before a diagnosis of any of these types of cancers was made.
Cervical cancer diagnoses almost halved (46 percent reduction) in the least deprived areas but fell 16 percent in the most deprived areas in 2020 as screening programmes were paused.
Dumbarton MSP Jackie Baillie has demanded a cancer catch-up plan to deal with a “ticking timebomb” of cases.
She said: “This damning report lays bare the scale of the devastation the pandemic inflicted on cancer services in Scotland and it shows in greater detail how people from the most deprived areas, including those in West Dunbartonshire, are most adversely affected.
“Early detection is key to saving lives, but that went out the window in 2020 and looks to have impacted on my constituents throughout Dumbarton, the Vale and Balloch more than most across Scotland.
“The SNP have had one warning after another about this but have continually buried their heads in the sand.
“This dangerous complacency is costing lives and causing the chaos we see in cancer services now.
“Lives have already been lost and more are at stake here – we urgently need a real catch-up plan that includes Labour’s proposals for rapid diagnostic centres, to save lives and deal with this ticking timebomb of cancer cases.”
Maree Todd, Scotland’s public health minister, said: “Early cancer diagnosis has never been more important which is why we’ve committed a further £20million over the parliamentary term – on top of the £44m previous investment – to our Detect Cancer Early Programme, which aims to provide greater public awareness of signs and symptoms of cancer to improve earlier diagnosis rates.”
