London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Oct 07, 2025

Cancer operations face cancellation across London as Covid patients fill hospitals

Cancer operations face cancellation across London as Covid patients fill hospitals

Exclusive: lifesaving surgery to be postponed in capital as cases top 57,000, while other parts of UK brace for effects of Christmas Day mixing

NHS bosses are set to cancel urgent surgery across London in a move that could mean cancer patients waiting months for potentially lifesaving operations, the Observer can reveal.

NHS England chiefs are considering the drastic action because hospitals across the capital are becoming overwhelmed by people who are very sick with Covid-19.

The operations likely to be cancelled, known as “priority two” procedures, mainly involve surgery for cancer where specialists have judged that the patients need to be operated on within four weeks. Any delay could allow their tumour to grow, the disease to spread, or both, thus reducing their chances of survival.

Health service executives and cancer experts fear patients’ cancers may worsen, or even become inoperable, if surgery is postponed for an unknown length of time.

“These are operations that are curative if done within four weeks but if you wait longer they may not be so effective,” said one senior London NHS figure. “The impact of this on patients’ health depends on when they get rebooked. Delaying cancer surgery can lead to tumours growing or spreading – and worse outcomes.”


UK data as published 2 January, 2021, national data as published 2 January, 2021. Note: This is the latest available from PHE. UK total is not always the sum of totals for individual countries. Low daily deaths at weekends is often a result of delayed reporting. Weekly change shows new daily cases compared to 7 days ago.


The situation has arisen because London hospitals are running out of intensive care beds and cannot perform types of cancer surgery that would require an ICU bed for the patient to recover in.

These operations are the second most pressing of the four categories of surgery the NHS undertakes. Priority four cases are elective procedures that can be deferred for longer than three months; priority three operations should be done within three months; and priority two within 28 days. The only types deemed more urgent are emergency operations, which need to be done within 24 or 72 hours.

Sir David Sloman, NHS regional director for London, said: “Londoners continue to receive urgent cancer care and surgery. Urgent cancer surgery is not being cancelled in London.”

The decision came as the UK recorded a further 57,725 cases of Covid-19, the fifth day running that the figure has topped 50,000. A further 445 deaths were also recorded yesterday.

Blood Cancer UK urged sufferers who were parents, in order to protect their own health, to seriously consider whether to send their children to school if they lived in an area where the infection rate was high. “No parent with blood cancer should feel under any pressure to send their children to school over the next few weeks if they think keeping them off is the right thing for their family,” the body said.

In another sign of the intense strain on the capital’s NHS, five hospitalson Saturday had to divert emergency patients to other hospitals because their A&E units were so overloaded.

Meanwhile, senior doctors and hospital bosses are warning that the NHS is at risk of becoming “maxed out”, with a widespread shutdown of normal care, because of the number of Covid cases needing hospital care.

They fear that the inter-household mixing that was allowed in some parts of the UK on Christmas Day will lead to a further rise in the already dramatic numbers of people becoming very ill. “When you factor in that any surge in infections due to Christmas mixing may only just have started to show, it’s clear the situation could get even worse over the next 10-21 days as the effects of Christmas and New Year become apparent,” said Dr Nick Scriven of the Society for Acute Medicine, which represents many hospital doctors.

“The NHS could well reach a ‘maxed out’ stage that will manifest itself as cancellation of all non-acute work, in terms of operations and clinics, causing further chaos to those waiting for treatment.” The crisis is so grave that the suspension of non-Covid care could last until Easter, he added.

Nicki Credland, chair of the British Association of Critical Care Nurses, said: “Some hospitals are running at up to 200% of their pre-Covid capacity, putting massive pressure on staff. We’ve not seen the effects of mixing on Christmas Day: there’s a two- to three-week timelag. The risk of overwhelming services is a very real one.”

Credland and NHS Providers, which represents hospital trusts in England, warned that the quality of care inpatients receive could suffer because of staff shortages and the strain on hospitals.

“There is significant staff sickness, which impacts on safe staffing levels. This will compromise patient care,” said Credland. Some trusts, she said, are already using one critical care nurse to care for three or even four very sick patients at a time, when the norm is 1:1.

Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, said hospitals were supporting each other where they could, for example, by taking patients from busy neighbours: “There’s a real concern that things could get worse before they get better. Given the increasing demand, alongside high levels of staff absences caused by the virus, it will be harder to ensure the right quality of care for patients, many of whom are very sick.”

Dr Alison Pittard, the dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, said: “I share the concern that the already dire situation facing the NHS will get even worse over the next few weeks, given the huge spike in infections and hospitalisations, and given that many hospitals are already close to being overwhelmed.


“Numbers [of people in hospital with Covid] are already higher than in April – and the relaxation of restrictions on Christmas Day, and people not following ‘hands, face, space’, will lead to increased transmissions, translating to hospital admissions in a few weeks.

“I don’t think the NHS will collapse. But it will be hard, and the NHS is likely to cancel some normal activity and perhaps use the Nightingale hospitals for less sick patients, to free up hospital capacity.”

Macmillan Cancer Support’s director of policy, Steven McIntosh, said: “Any cancer patient who sees delays to tests or treatment as a result of these extreme NHS pressures will be desperately anxious and scared. It is critical any changes to cancer care are carefully discussed with patients and are based on their individual needs, to ensure they access vital tests and treatment and are kept safe from the virus.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
×