Portsmouth has more emergency cancer patients than before the coronavirus pandemic began

Across England, the percentage of cancer patients presenting as an emergency has fallen in the last year – though it remains above pre-pandemic levels, and Cancer Research UK says more must be done to diagnose cancers at an earlier stage.

An emergency presentation is when a diagnosis is given within 30 days of a hospital admission and does not include more managed routes, such as cancer screening or through a GP.

NHS Digital figures show 208 people first presented as having cancer in the NHS Portsmouth CCG area between October and December – of them, 48 were deemed to be an emergency.

It meant 23.1 per cent of patients were classed as an emergency – down from 30.5 per cent in the same period in 2020.

However, this is higher than the final quarter of 2019 (21.7 per cent), the last before the pandemic.