CANCER patients in Oxford have been missing appointments during the coronavirus pandemic, a doctor has said.

Patients receiving cancer care at the Churchill Hospital are being reminded that safe cancer care is still available to them during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUH) said it has taken 'numerous measures' to make sure patients can still receive their care in a safe environment, despite the virus outbreak.

These include designating the Churchill Hospital as a 'cold' site, which means that the presence of Covid-19 is brought down to an 'absolute minimum'.

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Other measures include restricting extra visitors to the centre, screening questionnaires and temperature checks for all patients and visitors.

All staff have access to Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), and patients are offered telephone and video appointments where necessary.

The hospital is also offering drug deliveries to patients’ homes where possible, as well as blood tests in a drive-in facility at a separate location from the main outpatient department, but still on the Churchill site.

Nick Maynard, cancer lead at OUH, said: "We’ve noticed that people haven’t been attending their appointments, and we don’t want people to miss out on cancer care because of fears around Covid-19.

"Finding and treating cancer early gives us the best chance to cure it, and ignoring potential problems can have serious consequences now or in the future.

"Ongoing care and treatment is just as important, as many of these are also curative and can control disease long term."

He added: "We want to reassure people that we have really robust procedures in place to make sure that you receive your care safely. We’ve seen some departments where attendance has dropped quite a lot, like radiotherapy, and we want our patients to feel confident in the fact that they’re in a safe environment and that their treatment can continue as it always did."

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It comes after Dr Shelley Hayles, planned care and cancer clinical lead for Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group, said cancer referrals had also ‘dropped off massively’ due to fewer people seeking advice from their GP. People with concerns or worries about their symptoms of cancer are advised to contact their GP.

Initial telephone consultations or via video mean people do not necessarily need to go to GP surgeries for check-ups, and if they do need to be seen in person then there will be measures in place to keep patients safe.

Dr Hayles stressed people should not worry about ‘being a bother’ to GPs and they would be ‘delighted’ to have a conversation about any cancer concerns.

She added: “We know that finding cancer early gives us the best chance to cure it, and ignoring potential problems can have serious consequences now or in the future.”