Deadly cancer delays triple - more than a third waiting over 2 months for treatment
Deadly cancer treatment delays have tripled over the past twelve years with more than a third of patients waiting over the two month target, new government figures show.
Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed that 33.4 percent of cancer patients are waiting longer than the 62-day standard to access treatment - the maximum time patients should wait between a cancer referral and the start of treatment.
The news comes alongside a separate analysis of NHS England wait times by Catch Up with Cancer campaign revealing that since January 2020 a quarter of a million patients have exceeded the 62 day wait target for from GP referral to treatment.
Measures included increasing healthcare capacity and prioritising diagnosis and treatment.
Although some of the increased waits can be linked to growing numbers of people with cancer due to an ageing population, experts say this is only part of the explanation.
Professor Pat Price, chair of Radiotherapy UK and co-founder of Catch Up With Cancer, said: "We're dealing with a desperate legacy of cancer treatment delays and without urgent action it is only going to get worse. The Office for National Statistics figures are devastating and show why we are at the bottom of the league tables for cancer survival. Cancer treatment waiting times have been near record levels for too long. This should be firmly placed back at the top of the political agenda - decisive action would save thousands of peoples' lives a year. The Government have said the NHS is broken. Any effort to fix it must prioritise cancer and include a dedicated cancer plan to ensure people get the cancer treatment they need on time."
Leading cancer expert Professor Karol Sikora, former advisor to the World Health Organisation on cancer care said: "It's awful. Patients are dying waiting for treatment. These figures have got worse. Successive ministers have blamed the covid backlog, but this is no longer the reason.
Patients are waiting weeks and months knowing they have cancer, knowing it is spreading and just waiting for treatment."
He added: "We urgently need to give patients better access to diagnostics and scans so cancers can be picked up earlier and treatment can be started sooner."
An unprecedented number of these paid for using private medical insurance rather than being funded directly by the patient - known as self-pay. The biggest increases came in the 20-29 and 30-39 year-old age groups which were both up by 13 percent.
The analysis comes as figures show there are more private hospital admissions than in any previous quarter on record.
An unprecedented number of these paid for using private medical insurance rather than being funded directly by the patient - known as self-pay. The biggest increases came in the 20-29 and 30-39 year-old age groups which were both up by 13 percent.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "We have inherited a broken NHS. Too many cancer patients are waiting too long for treatment, and we are determined to change that. As part of our mission to get the NHS back on its feet, we will improve cancer survival rates by hitting all cancer waiting time targets within five years, and double the number of MRI and CT scanners so no patient waits longer than they should."
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