Cancer pledge under threat

Despite a pledge by the Government that everyone with suspected cancer will be seen within two weeks, experts at the British Thoracic Society (BTS) said this could prove impossible for some because of a lack of experts.

In the North-East and North Yorkshire, there is one lung specialist for every 117,000 people, the second highest figure in the country, compared to a European average of one per 60,000.

It takes 15 years for a consultant to be trained and the BTS has predicted the crisis will get worse as fewer medics in the UK are getting the specialist training they need to qualify.

Lung specialists treat asthma patients, people with respiratory disease and those with lung cancer, which is the second biggest killer in the country.

Unlike many health specialists they treat both adults and children.

Dr John Harvey, of the BTS, said: "There is a simple equation here that the Government must solve to avert another NHS crisis. We do not have enough specialists to cope and provide optimum treatment.

"The eventual loser from this shortfall can only be the patients who may face a situation where they cannot see a specialist at all.

"Urgent Government funding is needed to allow us to train the lung consultants of the future and to tackle the lung disease epidemic in this country."

Cure rates for lung cancer in the UK are half that of America and France because of staff and equipment shortages, says the BTS.

About eight million people in the UK have a lung disease, including 3.4 million with asthma and 35,000 with lung cancer.

Yesterday, the BTS told the Government that the shortage of specialists and the increasing number of patients had reached "the emergency zone".

The only region in the UK to have more lung patients per doctor than the North-East is the Trent area and the BTS claims many lung specialists in the region are forced to supplement their incomes with private work.