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NHS cancer treatment waiting times continue to rise

‘There are simply not enough doctors to safely treat the volume of patients’, Royal College of Radiologists warns

NHS cancer treatment waiting times continue to rise and lag woefully below targets in England.

Just 61 per cent of cancer patients who had their first treatment in April after an urgent GP referral had waited less than two months for treatment to start, figures from NHS England revealed today.

This is down from 63.5 per cent in March and against a target of 85 per cent.

It follows warnings from radiologists that cancer patients face worsening delays and the prospect of more gruelling treatment due to too few staff.

NHS England data shows that the proportion of cancer patients who saw a specialist within two weeks of being referred urgently by their GP fell from 83.9 per cent in March to 77.7 per cent in April, remaining below the 93 per cent target and the lowest figure since September 2022.

This target was last hit in May 2020.

About 71.3 per cent of patients urgently referred for suspected cancer were diagnosed or had cancer ruled out within 28 days, down from 74.2 per cent the previous month.

The NHS elective recovery plan sets a goal of March 2024 for 75 per cent of such patients to be diagnosed or have cancer ruled out within 28 days.

A poll of all 60 directors of Britain’s cancer centres by the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) found 95 per cent felt staff shortages were leading to longer waiting times for appointments and delays in cancer treatment.

Some 88 per cent were concerned about shortages impacting the quality of patient care, with the RCR warning that for every four-week delay to cancer treatment, the risk of death increased by around 10 per cent.

The RCR warned that staff shortages meant people were waiting longer than necessary to start chemotherapy or radiotherapy, while some doctors were now having to make “difficult decisions” about who to prioritise and were having to send patients to different hospitals.

Its new report stated that Britain had a 15 per cent shortfall of clinical oncologists but, by 2027, this figure would rise to 25 per cent.

The proportion of more expensive substitute staff now being used had grown from 4 to 8 per cent in the last two years.

RCR president Dr Katharine Halliday said urgent government action “is now critical,” adding: “There are simply not enough doctors to safely treat the volume of patients needed, and this will only worsen as demand rises and more doctors leave the NHS.

“We must train more doctors, while doing more to retain the ones we have.

“There is no luxury of time: doctors are stretched, stressed, and scared for their patients.”

We Own It said that the NHS has been undermined by chronic underfunding and doctors being lost to “parasitic” private hospitals.

It tweeted: “Private hospitals have no doctors of their own. They leech talent from the NHS and save on benefits and training costs.

“The upshot? Public money subsidises private hospitals to the tune of billions of pounds and our care is compromised by staff shortages.

“The only way out of this mess is to fund our NHS properly and reinstate it as a fully public service.”

Cancer Research chief executive Michelle Mitchell blamed the staffing and equipment shortages on “underfunding and poor planning from governments across the UK.”

The charity called on leaders to take action now with “long-term and strategic planning matched with sufficient investment.”

Macmillan Cancer Support head of policy Minesh Patel said that a failure to recruit and retain enough specialist professionals was “at the heart of this crisis.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokeswoman said that there are 50 per cent more specialist cancer doctors now compared to 2010 but said there is more to do.

She said the government will soon be publishing its long-term workforce plan.

Meanwhile, the number of people in England waiting to start routine hospital treatment rose to a record high of 74 million in April.

And the number of people waiting more than 12 hours in A&E departments from a decision to admit to actually being admitted stood at 31,494 in May, up 17 per cent from April.

The number waiting at least four hours from the decision to admit to admission has also increased by 8 per cent during that time.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting MP said: “Rishi Sunak promised to cut waiting lists, but hundreds of thousands more patients are waiting for treatment today than when he became Prime Minister.

“The longer the Conservatives are in office, the longer patients wait.”

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