Labour: Cancer patients waiting YEARS for diagnosis or treatment

The Labour Party is today releasing findings of an investigation into the time cancer patients have to wait for care, revealing that as of January this year:

• Patients are waiting up to six months (171 days) to see a cancer doctor after their GP has urgently referred them to hospital

• Diagnostic waiting times are particularly bad, with patients waiting up to nine months for their tests or scan (262 days) and up to two years (671 days) for a diagnosis or to have cancer ruled out

• Some patients are waiting more than a year (397 days) to start cancer treatment.

Those patients had not finished their cancer pathway at the time the FOI responses were sent, so they may still be waiting.

Cancer waiting times have got worse for patients every year since the Conservatives came to power in 2010, according to NHS figures. Last year, 500,000 suspected cancer patients waited longer to the recommended two weeks to see a specialist after being referred by a GP. 52 out of the 60 NHS trusts which responded to the FOI saw a patient wait more than half a year to start their treatment in 2022.

Across 2022, the longest waits were:

• 350 days to see a specialist after being urgently referred by a GP, for a patient in Lincolnshire

• Almost two years (650 days) for a diagnosis or to have cancer ruled out for a patient in Dartford and Gravesham, while another in Somerset wait 594 days for a test or scan, on what is meant to be a two-week pathway.

• A year and a half (469 days) to start treatment, for a patient in North Tees and Hartlepool.

In 2021, five hospitals in England saw patients wait more than a year to start treatment, meaning their cancer was likely to have spread. One patient at East Kent NHS trust waited almost THREE YEARS (969 days) to get a cancer diagnosis or to have cancer ruled out.

Labour’s plan to bring down NHS waiting times and get patients seen and treated faster includes:

• Doubling medical school places to train 15,000 doctors a year
• Training 10,000 more nurses and midwives every year
• Doubling the number of district nurses qualifying each year
• Training 5,000 more health visitors.

The plans will be paid for by abolishing the non-dom tax status, to make sure that people who live and work in Britain pay their taxes here.

Wes Streeting MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, said:

“How can the Conservatives claim our public services are in good shape, when cancer patients are left waiting and wondering for months and even years, while their cancer could be spreading? I know from my own experience with kidney cancer that every second counts when it comes to cancer.

“Labour will double medical school places to train 7,500 more doctors and 10,000 more nurses a year, paid for by abolishing non-doms. Cancer patients need life-saving treatment more than the wealthiest need a tax loophole. And if Rishi Sunak agrees with that, then why doesn’t he do something about it?”

Ends

Notes

• All data from Freedom of Information requests submitted to NHS Trusts in England in February 2020. 74 Trusts responded to the request, a response rate of 61%.

• National targets for cancer waiting times and when they were last met:

Source: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/Cancer-Waiting-Times-National-Time-Series-Oct-2009-Feb-2023-with-Revisions.xlsx

• Cancer waiting times have got worse for patients every year since the Conservatives came to power in 2010, according to NHS figures.

NHS England waiting times for cancer referral and treatment at record high | NHS | The Guardian

• 500,000 suspected cancer patients waited longer to the recommended two weeks to see a specialist after being referred by a GP.
  Half a million cancer patients forced to wait for treatment (thetimes.co.uk)

• Conservative Party Chairman, Greg Hands, told LBC on Sunday that public services are “in good shape” and “getting better.”

Public services in 'good shape' says Tory chairman Greg Hands - LBC