Ontario shut down non-urgent health services in the spring. Now hospitals are seeing many more patients with advanced cancers
COVID-19 measures during provincial lockdown led to big drops in cancer screening, and the results are showing. “This is a step backwards.”
TorontoStar
93d ago
Cancer surgeons in Ontario are reporting a sharp rise in the number of people coming to hospital with advanced cancers. It's an unintended consequence of the sudden shutdown of non-urgent health-care services during the spring wave of COVID-19.
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Now, seven months into the pandemic, experts warn too many cancers are not being caught at their earliest stages, as patients arrive in hospital with more severe symptoms and advanced stages of disease.
In mid-March, the number of people getting routine cancer screening plummeted after the province halted its screening programs for breast, cervical and colorectal cancers.
Ontario shut down non-urgent health services in the spring. Now hospitals are seeing many more patients with advanced cancers, by @megan_ogilvie thestar.com/news/gta/2020/… via @torontostar #cancer #Covid19 #cdnhealth #onpoli