Worryingly long wait for NHS cancer patients

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDMar 20 2019

Around a fourth of NHS cancer patients have to wait a worryingly long amount of time to start treatment, according to a new NHS England report.

The new figures reveal that the health service has not been meeting targets of on-time health care delivery to cancer patients for over 1000 days. Similar figures have emerged from the A&E department performance.

For patients diagnosed with cancer, the UK government recommends that treatment should begin within 62 days. At least 85 percent of the patients should be seen during this time. January figures, however, reveal that only 76.2 percent of the patients are seen within this time frame.

January 2019 marks five years since the 62-day cancer target was first missed and, despite the best efforts of hard working NHS staff, more than 127,000 people have been left waiting too long to start vital treatment throughout that time.”

Dr  Fran Woodard, Macmillan Cancer Support

A spokeswoman from the NHS said, "More people than ever before are coming forward for cancer checks, with a quarter of a million more people getting checked for cancer this year and thousands more being treated within the two-month target. NHS England is investing an additional £10m this year to treat extra people and the NHS Long Term Plan sets out a range of ambitious measures to catch more cancers earlier, which will save thousands of lives every year.”

Waiting time has not been looking good for the A&E department as well says the report. Only 84.2 percent of the patients are seen within the four hour target time. The recommended numbers of 95 percent have not been met since July 2015, says the report.

An NHS spokeswoman said to this, “Despite significant increases in demand, almost a quarter of a million more people have been seen and treated within four hours in A&E this winter compared to last year. Ambulance services are responding to life threatening calls faster, with fewer ambulance handover delays at A&E, and significantly more people have got the support they needed to avoid a long stay in hospital.”

The Royal College of Surgeons has issued a statement saying that 227,569 patients are kept waiting for over six months for a planned procedure. At present 4.16 million people are waiting to start on their treatment says the report.

The backlog of patients waiting to start treatment continues to grow. There are now over 100,000 more patients waiting longer than 18 weeks to start treatment when compared with the same time last year.”

Professor Derek Alderson, President, Royal College of Surgeons.

Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth in a statement said, “Today’s statistics will do little to allay frontline concerns that targets will be changed not on the basis of clinical consensus, but because of political pressure from Tory ministers.” He called the situation “shameful”.