More NHS hospitals breach waiting times for cancer treatment
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Version 0 of 1. Lives are being put at risk because more and more cancer patients are not being treated quickly enough by the NHS as hospitals struggle to cope with demand, experts are warning. Growing numbers of hospitals are breaching key waiting times for cancer that are meant to ensure speedier diagnosis and treatment in order to maximise patients’ chances of survival. The latest NHS England data on cancer treatment performance show that hospitals have failed to treat the required number of urgent cancer cases within 62 days throughout the whole of 2014-15 and have now not done so for the last 15 months. That has resulted in more than 20,000 patients being forced to wait longer than they should to receive potentially life-saving surgery, cancer drugs or radiotherapy. Related: Too many die without dignity, says report on end-of-life care More than 5,000 people in January, February and March alone experienced a delay for such treatment, which cancer charities warn can cause worry and alarm and also, in some cases, reduce a patient’s chances of beating the disease. “Thousands of cancer patients are being failed. There have been consecutive breaches for over a year and almost half of all NHS trusts in England are now breaching the 62-day target. This is the worst result since records began in 2009,” said Sara Hiom, Cancer Research UK’s director of early diagnosis. In addition, patients with six common forms of cancer had to wait more than two weeks to see a specialist after being referred as urgent cases by their GP. “Once again, we see an unacceptable and recurring problem with our healthcare system as the cancer waiting times target has been breached for the fifth quarter in a row. People with cancer are having to wait too long for access to treatment and their lives are being put at risk. This simply cannot continue,” said Dr Fran Woodard, director of policy and research at Macmillan Cancer Support. The NHS is meant to ensure that 85% of patients referred urgently by their GP for their first treatment receive it within 62 days, but they only managed to do so with 83.4% of patients last year. That included just 73.3% of those with lower gastrointestinal cancer, such as bowel cancer; 75.3% of lung cancer cases; and 78% of people with a urological cancer, which affects the bladder or kidneys. In all, 109 hospital trusts missed the 62-day target for lower gastrointestinal cancers, 100 did so with urological cancers and 96 with lung cancer, Macmillan’s analysis of the figures shows. The NHS just about met the target to refer 93% of suspected breast cancer cases to a specialist within 14 days of GP referral, recording 93.3% performance. But 21 trusts missed it and only 54% of patients at one of them saw a specialist. The Department of Health declined to comment on the breaches. It stressed that cancer survival was at its highest ever. But charities warned that prompt diagnosis and treatment were vital to ensure it improved as much as ministers want. Sean Duffy, NHS England’s national clinical director for cancer, said: “The NHS is helping more people survive cancer than ever before. Swift diagnosis is key, and our latest annual figures show that over 1.5 million people were urgently referred to a specialist by their GP – that’s over 70% more than five years ago.” |