MANSFIELD is one of the worst performing areas in the country for prostate cancer treatment, it has emerged this week.
New figures uncovered by the Prostate Cancer Charter for Action show the district has a mortality rate of 55 per cent above the national average –– equal to 38 deaths per 100,000 population.
Its report shows that areas of the country that failed t
o implement guidelines recommended by The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) had a mortality rate four per cent higher than areas that had.
Prostate Cancer Charter for Action spokesman and consultant urologist Dr Frank Chinegwundoh says that, although prostate cancer services are improving as a whole across the country, patients should not face such a lottery in the care they receive.
"The failure of the NHS to implement NICE's Improving Outcomes Guidance is partly responsible for these widening inequalities," he said.
"We look to the Government and the NHS to ensure that this crucial guidance is implemented in full, so that the care prostate cancer patients receive is no longer left to chance."
A spokesman for King's Mill Hospital said: "We are basically a hospital that treats people when we get them so we do not have any issues with our treatment and our rates are as good as anyone in the country.
"We also employ a clinical nurse specialist and we are one of the first hospitals in the region to use pioneering neurology laser treatment but radical prostate surgery is carried out at Derby City Hospital.
"We would urge the Primary Care Trust to look at these figures and start a campaign to educate people about the dangers of prostate cancer."
