DOZENS of cancer patients were admitted to hospitals as emergency cases in Southampton last summer, figures show.

Public Health England data shows 43 people with newly identified tumours were admitted to hospital inpatient wards as an emergency in the NHS Southampton CCG area in the three months to September.

But that was still down from 50 between April and June – and fewer than the 54 recorded during the same period a year earlier.

Patients are commonly admitted as emergency cases via A&E, or after an emergency referral by their GP, but can arrive through other routes.

People who have their cancer diagnosed this way are significantly less likely to survive on average as it is often more advanced.

The figures count all invasive forms of the disease except non-melanoma skin cancer, and can include admissions with a suspicion of a tumour.

Including all referral types, there were 217 first inpatient admissions for cancer in the three months to September – down from 263 during the same period in 2019.

It means around 20% of admissions were listed as emergencies, compared to 21% a year earlier.

Across England, nearly 14,500 newly admitted cancer inpatients were emergency cases between July and September, which was more than any three-month period on record.

Cancer Research UK said the rising proportion of cancer patients across England who were admitted as emergency cases during the early months of the pandemic was mainly driven by a drop in the number of overall admissions.

It said this was because people were more reluctant to visit their GP during the first wave of the virus, which meant that non-emergency admissions decreased.

A Department for Health spokeswoman said: “Despite confronting enormous pressure, the NHS has continued to treat cancer patients as a priority, with 1.86 million urgent referrals and over 477,000 people receiving treatment between March 2020 and January 2021.”