Patients are being warned of a “shocking gap in cancer care” as new figures reveal that fewer than 3% of England’s NHS trusts met a key waiting-times target last year for cancer patients to be treated within two months of an urgent GP referral.
Of 125 hospital trusts in England analysed, only three (2.4%) hit the standard of treating 85% of patients within 62 days after an urgent referral in 2022. Some trusts have not hit the standard for at least eight years.
More than 66,000 patients were forced to wait more than two months for their first treatment last year after a referral, the figures reveal. One leading cancer charity said this weekend the cancer care system was not fit for purpose, with “lives left hanging in the balance”.
The failure of the vast majority of hospital trusts in England to hit the target has been revealed after a House of Commons public accounts committee report, published last week, reported that waiting times were at their worst recorded level.
Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dems health spokesperson, said the figures showed that even before the pandemic struck, the number of hospital trusts meeting targets was falling rapidly. “Now the situation is so bad that barely any hospitals are able to provide patients with the treatment they need on time. Ministers have consistently failed to plan ahead or provide adequate funding, while taking patients and NHS staff for granted. There is a shocking gap in cancer care from one area to another,” she said.
The analysis by the House of Commons library, commissioned by the Lib Dems, reveals that at some trusts more than half of patients waited longer than two months before cancer treatment after an urgent GP referral last year, including those at the Royal Wolverhampton NHS trust (61%), Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS trust (59%) and North Middlesex University Hospital NHS trust (59%).
At the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS trust, 3,060 patients were treated for cancer after an urgent GP referral in 2022. Out of those, 1,953 (64%) had to wait longer than 62 days for first treatment.
The only three trusts to hit the performance standard were Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS trust, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS trust and Queen Victoria Hospital NHS trust in West Sussex.
The NHS Cancer Plan 2000 first set out targets for the times patients should wait before receiving treatment. The target has been consistently missed since 2013-14 and there was a significant further deterioration during the pandemic.
Most recent NHS England figures reveal that from October to December, just 61% of patients were treated within two months of an urgent referral for suspected cancer, with 17,465 patients waiting longer than the treatment standard. Many of the delays after a referral involve waits for tests and a conclusive diagnosis.
Minesh Patel, head of policy at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “With cancer waiting times in England officially the worst on record and a chronic shortage of cancer professionals, it’s clear that the current cancer care system simply isn’t fit for purpose. Despite the efforts of hardworking NHS staff, too many people are facing agonising waits for cancer treatment, with their lives left hanging in the balance.”
Dr Ian Walker, executive director of policy and information at Cancer Research UK, said: “With growing numbers of people in the UK expected to be diagnosed with cancer in the years ahead, the task ahead is huge. We urge the government to publish a long-term workforce plan that commits to growing staff numbers, and use the upcoming spring budget to make sure it is backed with funding.”
Hospital trusts say they are working hard to reduce backlogs. A spokesperson for University Hospitals Birmingham said that an “immense amount of work” had been undertaken to improve capacity and that the number of patients waiting longer than two months for confirmed diagnosis or to start treatment had more than halved, from 1,600 in September to 518 in February.
Dr Hamish McLure, interim chief medical officer at Leeds teaching hospitals, said: “In the last year we reduced the number of patients on a 62-day cancer waiting list by 60%. We have done this by increasing our diagnostic and treatment capacity.”
The Department of Health and Social Care said: “We’re seeing high levels of urgent cancer referrals – with over 10,000 per working day in December 2022 – and over 92% of patients started treatment within a month of a decision to treat. We are working to reduce the 62-day cancer backlog – which has fallen 9% since peaking in 2020 – but we know there is more to do.”
