Record number of cancer patients in England waiting over three months for treatment

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A record number of people in England are waiting longer than ever for cancer treatment, as the total waiting more than three months surpassed 12,000 for the first time.

More than 4% of the 287,000 people on cancer waiting lists had waited more than 104 days to receive treatment after diagnosis, despite 2,000 of those being considered urgent patients, according to NHS England figures for the week ending on 1 January, seen by Health Service Journal.

The record figures showed that some trusts were especially struggling. At North Bristol, the number of those waiting 104 days or more soared from 748 to 925 – the highest ever recorded by a trust.

Michelle Mitchell, Cancer Research UK’s chief executive, said that missing waiting time targets – which have not been fully met since December 2015 – was “unacceptable when a matter of weeks can be enough for some cancers to progress”.

She called on the government to publish an “ambitious and fully funded” 10-year cancer plan. “Only then will we see significant improvements in early diagnosis and survival,” she said.

Minesh Patel, head of policy at Macmillan Cancer Support, said there had “never been a more frightening time for people living with cancer”. She said this was despite the best efforts of NHS staff, who were “at breaking point, unable to provide the care that patients deserve”, and urged the government to prioritise a fully funded workforce plan.

The figures were leaked before full NHS cancer waiting times figures are published on 12 January. In October, the last month for which official figures were available, NHS England missed all but one of its targets. Along with September, it was the worst month for breaching the 62-day cancer urgent referral target.

Prof Pat Price, an oncologist and co-founder of the #CatchUpWithCancer campaign, said the 62-day waiting time target from diagnosis to starting treatment was “the most clinically important of all the cancer targets”.

She said: “To see more than 12,000 patients waiting over three months is a disaster. Particularly because every four weeks of delay in starting cancer treatment can reduce cancer survival by 10%.”

The latest data shows that the NHS is starting to tackle the backlog, which fell 4.7% from 42,618 at the start of September to 40,627 at the beginning of January. However, many sufferers are still enduring long waits, with the number of three-month waits increasing by almost the same proportion during this period.

The government has said it aims to bring the backlog down to pre-pandemic levels by the end of March. It had previously targeted March 2022 to achieve this but had to defer to this year.

An NHS spokesperson said the NHS was seeing and treating more people for cancer than ever before, with more cancers being diagnosed at an early stage.

She added: “The record demand we have seen in response to efforts to recover from the impact of the pandemic has inevitably had an impact, yet over 810,000 have started treatment for cancer since March 2020 – 94% within a month – and we are investing billions to expand diagnostic and treatment services to meet increased demand.”

The North Bristol NHS Trust said: “We have made significant progress with our cancer waits in recent months and this has been recognised by NHS England de-escalating us from tier 1 status. We recognise there is more to do and are determined to build on the improvements we have already delivered.”