18-05-2025
Covid guru Devi: How my fight for NHS cancer care laid bare Scotland's waiting list crisis
A public health expert who advised the Scottish and UK governments has revealed how her own battle to access cancer treatment exposed chronic failures within the NHS.
Professor Devi Sridhar became a leading voice during the pandemic, when she counselled Nicola Sturgeon on the SNP 's COVID response and made regular appearances on television shows like Good Morning Britain and Channel 4 News.
But despite her significant expertise and government influence, the Oxford-educated academic was told she could face a six-month wait to learn whether the abnormal cells discovered in a smear test were cancerous.
Ms Sridhar said: 'I was calling three to four times a day to see if anything was available, saying I could come any time.
'It was scary and it was frustrating because I teach this stuff, right? So I know there's delays in the system and I also know the statistics on treatments. Each day I move forward [before] being treated, my chance goes down by 2 per cent.'
Like 280,000 other Scottish women each year, Sridhar had undergone a routine test to detect signs of HPV, a group of viruses responsible for 95 per cent of cervical cancer cases.
The health expert was shocked to receive a call explaining that 'possibly cancer' was present – but even less prepared for the prognosis of indefinite delays and administrative chaos that accompanied it.
Sridhar repeatedly begged for a date for a follow-up consultation, but was left 'waiting on a letter from the system where you're just a data point'.
Having lost her own father to cancer when he was just 49, the prospect of facing lengthy delays while simply hoping for the best was particularly galling.
She told The Sunday Times: 'Everyone did say, 'he's gonna be alright'. And he wasn't,'
Although the professor is sympathetic to the pressures on NHS staff, she admits that her struggle to beat the backlog reveals the extent of the crisis facing the health service.
She added: 'We're not meeting the targets for even those with an active cancer diagnosis … and that is why our survival outcomes are not as good as other countries.'
Ultimately, Ms Sridhar's persistence paid off and she was given a cancelled appointment slot after two months.
The abnormal cells were frozen to stop them from growing and Sridhar also received the HPV vaccine to increase her immune system's response to the virus.
But she advises that her own experience demonstrates how 'you have to be an active participant in your patient journey' to access timely care – a daunting challenge for those without the academic's medical expertise.
The warning comes after Public Health Scotland revealed that more than a quarter of patients referred with urgent suspicion of cancer are waiting longer than the 62-day target for their first treatment.
Cancer Research UK's public affairs manager in Scotland, Dr Sorcha Hume, criticised the waiting times as 'completely unacceptable'.
She said: 'NHS staff are doing their best but they're battling against under-investment alongside rising cancer cases.
'If we're to turn the tide on the anxiety faced by so many, we need to see adequate funding for staff and equipment.
'Innovative reform and rapid progress against Scotland's cancer strategy is also essential.'
While Ms Sridhar credits the NHS screening programme with protecting her health, she echoed CRUK's call for increased investment in public health initiatives.
She said: 'I don't understand sometimes why we think we're saving money by pulling back from screening programmes, prevention programmes, intervention programmes, when it ends up costing us more in the end.'
