Mar 7, 2023
Key cancer waiting time target set to be missed in England
The NHS is set to miss a key cancer treatment target laid out in the Covid recovery plan, the national cancer director for England has said. The NHS had committed to cutting the backlog of people waiting more than two months to be diagnosed and begin cancer treatment to pre-pandemic levels. In its Covid recovery plan published in February 2022, NHS England committed to tackling the substantial backlog of people with suspected cancer who are facing long waits to either start treatment, or be tested and receive the all-clear. Professor Peter Johnson, national clinical director for cancer at NHS England, told MPs: "I don't think anybody is comfortable with the fact that we have a large number of people who are waiting too long to get their diagnosis and start their treatment."What we need to do is contend with a very large number of referrals - between 200,000 to 260,000 people every month are referred for investigation of possible cancer, [of] whom only about 6% will have cancer. Dame Cally said the spike in referrals from GPs has been linked to a number of factors including a rise in cancer rates in the population; more people putting off care during the pandemic who are now coming forward; and a wider increase in awareness attributed to publicity campaigns and high-profile cancer cases.
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