FEATURE CONVENE TO SCREEN
Check4Cancer’s medical director Professor Gordon Wishart sets out the case for putting policies in place for dealing with cancer before it rears its ugly head among your workforce.
Check4Cancer has published a report entitled Cancer in the workplace: what does it mean for HR? Drawing on a specially commissioned survey of over 100 HR professionals, it provides first-hand insight into how cancer and its impact on the workplace is being perceived by businesses and suggests ways to tackle this growing issue.
Why commission this report now? The rise in the number of people with cancer is a growing issue for employers that will not simply go away. Each year, around 325,000 people are diagnosed with cancer and 160,000 people die from it. More than 100,000 people of working age are diagnosed with cancer in the UK each year, and there are more than 700,000 people of working age living with the disease.
Recent figures from cancer charity Macmillan show that survival rates are now at their highest ever level in England, with 2.5 million people currently living with cancer in the UK. Macmillan also estimates that by 2020 around half of the population will contract the disease at some point in their lives.
This is not the whole picture, of course. The other side of the story is that we are also getting better at treating cancer, and for the first time more people are living with it than are dying from it. Survival rates have actually doubled in the last decade, with 50% of patients diagnosed with cancer now surviving 10 years after diagnosis. Better education, increased awareness and improved methods of early detection are taking effect.
We believe we are at a critical juncture in the history of this disease, and this report brings with it not just a warning, but an opportunity. Business must proof itself against the worst effects of cancer in the workplace, but the way it responds now could have a major impact on cancer detection, treatment and survival rates. In short, positive strategies for dealing
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with cancer could not only be good for individual businesses, but when considered nationally could save thousands of lives.
World Health Organisation (WHO) reports indicate that the means already exist to greatly reduce cancer – one third through changes in lifestyle and another third through the introduction of early detection and education programmes to increase awareness of the risk factors and symptoms of specific cancers.
If we consider this in relation to educational services and targeted early detection programmes, the potential exists for employers to reduce cancer by up to two thirds within their workforce – making a significant impact on the lives of their people and organisational wellbeing as a whole.
The encouraging news is that HR professionals seem to be keenly aware of this issue. In our survey, carried out by Censuswide, 95% gave their backing to the need for regular, free cancer checks for all employees in response to the growing prevalence of cancer among the working population, and rising numbers of cancer ‘survivors’ who return to work.
Of course, this awareness needs to translate into positive action. Currently, 63% plan to introduce cancer awareness programmes and/ or screening in their organisation (22% were ‘not sure’; 13% said it was unlikely).
The HR professionals surveyed were also asked what they thought would be the impact of cancer on their organisation in the near future. The greatest impact, they thought, would be on staff planning (63% saying the impact would be very high or high); absenteeism (59% very high or high); medical insurance premiums (58% very high or high); other insurance premiums (50% very high or high); and 50% believed there would also
be very high or high impacts on client relationships and management. Other implications were said to be lower productivity, negative effects on staff morale, and a need for more services and long- term support, such as counselling and family support services.
The survey also revealed, however, that HR professionals tend to overestimate the role of the NHS in providing cancer checks. 78% correctly believed the NHS provided regular breast cancer screening; and 65% thought – also correctly – that cervical cancer was covered by the NHS. But 42% said the NHS offered checking for bowel cancer generally (when it is only available to 60-69 year-olds). 39% said prostate cancer was checked; 29% testicular cancer; 26% lung cancer; 24% skin cancer – none of which are actively provided by the NHS. Early detection in the workplace can help to plug this gap.
While testing is crucial – nothing increases the chances of successful treatment as much as early detection – it is just one component of what we are calling an ‘anti-cancer strategy’. In the report, we set out five key elements for HR professionals to consider when forming this strategy.
First, have ready-made processes in place. Don’t wait for cancer cases to become a people or management issue before devising a policy and a set of agreed approaches.
Second, help with early detection. The Department of Health has called for the support of employers in the early detection of all cancers in its national plan entitled ‘Improving Outcomes’ and as we have seen, early detection is a critical factor. NHS data suggests early diagnosis of all cancers would reduce the UK cost burden by as much as £210 million and improve the chances of survival for over 52,000 patients.
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