People talk about COVID and delayed cancer care like we're just shutting down because we're too busy for cancer. That's not the case.

The more COVID there is out there the more stretched anaesthetic and ICU teams will be.

During the peaks of March/April we pulled huge numbers of anaesthetists, ODP, theatre staff, to man critical care areas.

Unless you want your colon removed with only a stick to bite on then we need to suppress COVID hard for any elective care to happen.

Additionally chemotherapy, monoclonal antibodies, and immunosuppressive drugs we use in cancer are made more dangerous by COVID. Those with a weakened immune system could die swiftly with an infection.

Suppressing the virus helps everyone needing care.