BRITAIN is “far, far behind” other countries in treating cancer patients, according to a leading health specialist.

Professor Karol Sikora of the University of Buckingham was commenting on figures obtained by the Labour Party which show patients waiting up to six months for treatment.

He told GB News: “It’s a very common disease, one in two of us are going to get it. You shouldn’t have to wait more than a month before you get diagnosed and start treatment.

“Even before Covid, we were falling way behind European norms and now we’re far, far behind.

“I know this is politics, the Labour Party are using it against the Conservative Party, and that’s the problem in this country.

“The health service is huge as a political football, instead of both parties sitting together and coming up with that strategy for the new NHS for a new way of delivering healthcare. It just can’t go on the way it’s going.”

In a discussion with Andrew Pierce and Bev Turner, he said: “At the time it was clear that no one knew how serious Covid was going to be and how quickly we’re going to come out of it.

“But everybody else suffered, people with heart attacks didn’t get admitted to hospital, people with cancer, diagnosis, chemotherapy was stopped, and young women with breast cancer, instantly with no explanation because of the problem.

“It was an overreaction, we could have coped with Covid and still run the normal cancer services, normal heart services, and that just didn’t happen.”

Professor Sikora added: “The very fact that the health service is so bureaucratic and so behind in being a consumer organisation.

“There’s no other consumer organisation I know that you’d have to phone up and wait for an hour and be told you can’t have an appointment to see someone. This is just unbelievable, or to wait 12 hours in an emergency room to get a stitch.

“There’s no other organisation that I know of would make you wait – not even a budget airline would treat you that badly.

“So I think the important thing is getting it much more consumer focused and getting things moving again.”