A call to ramp up cancer services has been made after it was revealed that the number of cases of the illness diagnosed fell in the region during the pandemic.
MSP Colin Smyth told the Standard the fall goes against predictions for an increase in the prevalence of the condition.
Figures from national agency Public Health Scotland show that there was a 29 per cent slump in cancer diagnoses during the 11 months up to November 29 last year - when compared with figures from 2019.
A total of 1,502 cancer cases were diagnosed during the timeframe in 2019, which dropped to 1,187 last year.
The figures for Dumfries and Galloway come as part of the agency’s Covid wider impact series, showing the toll taken by the pandemic on healthcare provision.
Across Scotland, there was a 17 per cent drop over the period.
The Public Health Scotland report concludes: “Just over 7,000 fewer patients in Scotland had a pathologically confirmed cancer diagnosis by the end of November 2020 than would have been expected.”
It comes just a week after Mr Smyth, South Scotland’s Labour representative at Holyrood, told of a looming “cancer crisis” and pandemic-induced backlog of care.
The warning came on the back of statistics which showed cancer incidence was on the rise across the region even before the pandemic began.
Mr Smyth said: “We know that all the projections show that there will be an increase in the number of people who have cancer, so that should mean a rise in the number of diagnoses.
“But instead there has been a dramatic fall in diagnosis during the pandemic as fewer people come forward and screening services were delayed or put on hold altogether.
“There are hundreds of missing patients in our region and there needs to be an urgent plan to address this crisis, including rapid diagnostic centres and a catch-up plan for screenings by increasing staff and processing capacity to clear the backlog within a year.”
He added: “The pandemic has had a devastating impact on cancer services but the problems were there before Covid struck.
“Our fantastic and hard-working NHS has been doing everything it can over these past 18 months, in terrible and unprecedented circumstances but now we need action.
“The next parliament must be fully focused on a national recovery plan for our NHS so that we never again have to choose between treating a virus or treating cancer.”
“But we know that necessary decisions to focus our NHS on responding to Covid-19 has meant delays in diagnosis and this, coupled with people’s reluctance to seek treatment for concerns, has led to a build in the numbers needing diagnosis and care. We are urgently addressing the situation.”
