Good Morning Britain's Kate Garraway shares colleague's terrifying cancer scare

27 October 2023 , 07:08

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Good Morning Britain's Kate Garraway shares colleague's terrifying cancer scare

Good Morning Britain's Kate Garraway has revealed a colleague on the programme suffered a cancer scare this year.

However, she went on to add that the colleague is still awaiting a call back from a check they had in June, due to the spiralling NHS waiting times. Kate explained that the colleague had a 'suspicious result' and was told they would be called back. It's estimated that the waiting lists could top eight million by summer 2024 due to an extremely long backlog as well as strikes from medical staff.

The Health Foundation has warned that the staggering number could be reached even if the health service staff were not to strike anymore. During the Friday instalment of the ITV breakfast programme, Kate and Adil Ray were joined by Iain Dale and Jacqui Smith to discuss the hot topics of the day.

Kate Garraway has revealed a colleagues terrifying cancer scare (ITV)

Sharing his views, Iain said: "I think a lot depends on the condition you have, as you know, I've had my own issues with health over the past year and I can only speak very positively about my experience. But there are many people who have been waiting far too long," Kate interrupted asking: "Is that because yours was urgent? I feel that a lot of people find that urgent care is still delivered.

"Emergency, urgent care, it is the long-term things, which could be, for instance, somebody we know, a colleague here had a suspicious result from her test for cervical cancer, being called back but that was in June and still not heard anything back about the callback.

Teachers, civil servants and train drivers walk out in biggest strike in decade

"That is isn't urgent as in you're about to drop dead that second but bad things could have happened in that time!" Iain added: "Absolutely and I think particularly on cancer treatments, the waiting lists are incredibly long and far too long. What do you do about it? Well, you can put more money into it which the government have started to do but in the end, one of the ways to get the list down is for all operating theatres to be used as often as they can be."

Iain Dale and Jacqui Smith appeared on the programme to share their views (ITV)

Former Secretary of State for the Home Department, Jacqui added that it is "incomprehensible" that there hasn't been a "real attempt" to solve industrial action in the medical industry which has also contributed to the long waiting times. "At the moment, hospitals are operating with three weeks of the month when they can operate properly," she said.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had previously promised to cut the backlog and have more people treated by March 2024, although this has yet to materialise. Labour's Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: "Rishi Sunak’s failure to stop the strikes has only made a terrible situation worse, leaving even more patients waiting in pain and discomfort, unable to live their lives to the full."

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV and ITVX.

Daniel Bird