A NURSE fighting cancer says she fears for her fellow patients amid “huge” NHS staff shortages which she claims could spell disaster for the country’s healthcare system.
Becki Buggs, 43, a theatre nurse at Colchester Hospital, underwent surgery to remove her pancreatic cancer in February – the very operation she prepares patients for as part of her job.
The mother-of-two fears the challenges facing the NHS this winter could have a “devastating impact” on her fellow patients.
“We have huge staff shortages,” she said.
“People are leaving the NHS because they are burnt out and disillusioned.
“There is also now the extra pressure of winter coming up and soon it's going to be that we're so short of doctors and nurses that we're not going to be able to staff the hospitals.
“Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds are going to be a crisis again this winter, and you need an ICU bed after pancreatic cancer surgery.
“These surgeries will get cancelled if there're no ICU beds and the more that happens, the more opportunity the tumour has to grow. It's utterly horrible.”
Becki was diagnosed with the disease after her husband noticed she “looked like a Minion” due to her skin turning jaundice, one of the main symptoms of pancreatic cancer.
Recognising the signs, she admitted “everything was adding up to the fact it was not going to be a good diagnosis”.
“It didn’t make it any easier,” she said.
“In fact, it made it harder for me to tell people because I'm the person that they normally look to, to reassure them that everything's going to be okay.
“I couldn't do that this time because I was completely devastated myself.”
Becki considers herself lucky to have been quickly referred for surgery, but she is “deeply worried” other patients will miss out on the chance of having the same operation this winter.
She is backing Pancreatic Cancer UK’s ‘No Time To Wait’ campaign, which is calling on the Government to publish funded cancer plans to deliver faster diagnosis and treatment for people with pancreatic cancer who have no time to wait.
The campaign is urging a commitment to deliver diagnosis within 21 days of referral, fast access to treatment and care and immediate access to support from a specialist nurse.
Becki said: “It scares me that there are people out there who will think, ‘Oh, I just feel a bit off and I don't really feel well but it's fine, I can't get a GP appointment, so I'll just ride it out’.
“Then they become so ill and jaundiced that they get admitted to A&E and by then it's too late.”
Polling conducted by the charity revealed more than eight in ten GPs fear that extreme pressures on the NHS this winter will prevent people with pancreatic cancer and other less survivable cancers from having lifesaving treatment.
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