Patient's shocking wait for cancer scan results revealed by MP

Ms Morgan spoke at Prime Minister’s Questions to highlight that the county has the worst record on CT and MRI scan delays in the country.

The MP says she has been inundated with complaints from constituents who have faced ‘unacceptably long waits’, both from patients awaiting a diagnosis and from those already undergoing treatment.

Speaking in the Commons, she raised one example where a constituent with serious bowel cancer was receiving unsuitable chemotherapy because the scan result took so long.

It comes after the Royal College of Radiologists publicised information showing that 8.3 per cent of CT and MRI scans in the Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin area have been taking over one month to be read.

This, the report says, is the worst of any NHS Integrated Care Board in England.

The RCR say that across the country there is a 31 per cent shortage of radiologists, which has a knock-on impact to wider NHS waiting times and poor health outcomes, particularly in rural areas short of specialist provision.

Patients often face a long wait to get a scan in the first place and then a further long wait to get the result.

Ms Morgan challenged the Government to act on yet another statistic where Shropshire is bottom of the table.

“I was contacted last week by a constituent whose husband has stage four bowel cancer,” said Ms Morgan.

“He had a routine scan in June, but didn’t receive the results until early November and unfortunately, within that period, he received unsuitable chemotherapy and his cancer has progressed.

“Given that Shropshire has the worst record in the country for CT and MRI scan results, can I ask the Deputy Prime Minister the same question that my constituent has asked me? When is the Government going to address this problem?”

In response, Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner said:  “I’m sincerely sorry to hear about your constituent’s husband and the terrible diagnosis at stage four and the delays in that we’ve set out before how difficult the inheritance was in terms of the cancer diagnosis waiting list.

“People are waiting far too long for treatment. It’s why the Chancellor put record money and funding into our NHS so that we can catch cancer on time.

“I know that the House Secretary is determined to do this as a personal endeavour to him to make sure that people are not having to wait and don’t end up in the circumstances that are so tragic for your constituent.”