Doctors accused of being “horrible” over government’s cancer awareness campaign

Doctors’ negativity threatened to derail plans for a government anticancer campaign that is now achieving positive results, a health official has said.

James Brandon, head of marketing for Public Health England, said that many GPs and other health professionals were “horrible” towards the Be Clear on Cancer campaign when it was conceived in 2011 by the Department of Health.

It was designed to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of cancer and prompt people with concerns to visit their doctor.

But Brandon said that there were fears it might not “get off the ground” because health professionals argued that it would send many people to clinics who did not need to be there.

He …