The number of cancer patients admitted to hospitals as emergency cases in Swindon, Wiltshire and Bath & North East Somerset hit a record high last summer.
Figures released by Public Health England reveal 231 people with newly identified tumours were admitted to hospital inpatient wards as an emergency in the combined NHS CCG area in the three months to September.
That was up from 203 between July and September 2019, and the highest number for the period since comparable records began in 2010.
It was also an increase from 210 between April and June.
Macmillan Cancer Support said the rising number of cancer patients across England arriving at hospitals via A&E or other urgent routes showed the devastating effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on cancer care.
Head of policy at Macmillan Sara Bainbridge said: “So far the government has failed to show how it will deliver the staffing and resources needed to clear the backlog of people waiting for a diagnosis and treatment.
“They must urgently put this right so that people living with cancer get the care they need and do not become forgotten amid this pandemic.”
Patients are commonly admitted as emergency cases via A&E, or after an emergency referral by their GP, but can arrive through other routes.
Those who have their cancer diagnosed this way are significantly less likely to survive on average as it is often more advanced.
The figures count all invasive forms of the disease except non-melanoma skin cancer and can include admissions with a suspicion of a tumour.
Including all referral types, there were 997 first inpatient admissions for cancer in the three months to September in Swindon, Wiltshire and B&NES – down from 1,196 during the same period in 2019.
It means around 23 per cent of admissions were listed as emergencies, compared to 17 per cent a year earlier.
Across England, nearly 14,500 newly admitted cancer inpatients were emergency cases between July and September, which was more than any three-month period on record.
A Department for Health and Social Care spokeswoman said: “Despite confronting enormous pressure, the NHS has continued to treat cancer patients as a priority, with 1.86m urgent referrals and over 477,000 people receiving cancer treatment between March 2020 and January 2021.
“We continue to urge people to come forward to their GP if they have symptoms and as part of our additional investment in the NHS, an extra £1 billion is being used to boost diagnosis and treatment across all areas of elective care in the year ahead.”
The Adver approached Great Western Hospital for a comment.
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