Suspected cancer patients are having to wait up to 6 MONTHS to see a doctor and a year for treatment

Suspected cancer patients have to wait up to two years for a diagnosis and a year to start treatment, damning figures reveal.

The ‘unacceptable’ delays could give tumors time to spread, reduce survival rates and make treatment more expensive, charities warn.

The GGD must offer people an initial appointment with a specialist within two weeks of an urgent referral from their GP.

They must receive a diagnosis or all-clear within one month of the referral and begin treatment within two months.

But new data released under freedom of information laws shows that as of January this year, people waited up to 24 times longer than it took to be seen.

The figures, revealed by the Labor Party, show that the longest anyone has waited to see a specialist after getting an urgent referral from their GP was six months, or 171 days.

Patients waited up to nine months (262 days) for a test or scan and up to two years (671 days) for a diagnosis or exclusion of cancer.

Meanwhile, they had waited more than a year (397 days) to begin cancer treatment.

These patients had not completed their cancer journey at the time the responses were sent, so they may still have to wait.

Sources say the extraordinary delays may be due to “patient choice” or “complex medically and clinically justified reasons,” rather than a lack of capacity.

Last year, 500,000 patients with suspected cancer waited longer than the recommended two weeks to see a specialist after being referred by a GP.

Patients will face further disruption later this month when members of the Royal College of Nursing escalate their strike action to pursue higher pay and refuse to provide cancer care for the first time.

Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said: ‘Cancer patients in England are facing unacceptable delays to vital treatment, demonstrating the need for urgent political leadership and action on cancer in England.

Years of underfunding have left an overstretched cancer workforce unable to meet rising demand.

“We are urging the government to prepare a fully funded staffing plan for England that will increase the number of clinicians being trained and tackle staff retention.

‘Only then will people affected by cancer receive the care they desperately need and deserve.’

Around 52 of the 60 NHS trusts that responded to the FOI saw a patient wait more than half a year to start their treatment in 2022.

In 2022 the longest waiting times were:

– Nearly a year (350 days) to see a specialist after urgent referral from a GP, for a patient in Lincolnshire.

– Nearly two years (650 days) for a diagnosis or to rule out cancer for a patient in Dartford and Gravesham.

– One and a half years (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 had likely spread.

A patient from the East Kent NHS Trust waited nearly three years (969 days) to receive a cancer diagnosis or to rule out cancer.

The latest official figures show that more than 2,000 people with cancer in England have waited more than a month to start treatment following the clinical decision to do so in February.

In addition, nearly 6,000 people waited more than two months to start treatment after an urgent GP referral for suspected cancer – the second-lowest performance ever recorded for this goal at 58.2 percent.

Saffron Cordery, deputy director of NHS Providers, representing NHS trusts, said: ‘Cancer is a priority for trust leaders who know the risks to patients who have to wait.

“The pandemic has forced people to wait longer than the trusts wanted for a diagnosis or to start treatment, but now the NHS is seeing more urgent referrals for suspected cancer than ever.

And for the first time, the NHS has just met the faster diagnosis standard for suspected cancer, with three in four people referred receiving a definitive diagnosis or all-clear within 28 days.

Severe labor shortages and a lack of capacity are impacting cancer care, as is the rest of the overstretched NHS.

“Trusts need more staff and investment to reduce delays and treat patients as quickly as possible.

‘Screening, prevention and early intervention are also vital.’

Wes Streeting, Labour’s health spokesman, said: ‘How can the Conservatives claim that our public services are in good working order, when cancer patients wait months and even years and wonder, while their cancer can spread?

‘I know from my own experience with kidney cancer that every second counts in cancer.

Labor will double the number of places in medical schools to train 7,500 extra doctors and 10,000 extra nurses a year, paid for by abolishing non-doms.

Cancer patients need more life-saving treatments than the wealthiest need a tax loophole. And if Rishi Sunak agrees, why isn’t he doing anything about it?’

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said the NHS has seen and treated a record number of cancer patients in the past two years.

They added: ‘More than nine in ten patients start cancer treatment within a month and the number of patients waiting for care for more than 18 months has fallen by more than four-fifths since the peak last September.

‘75% of patients were diagnosed with cancer within 28 days of referral, or had it ruled out, meaning NHS England’s faster diagnosis standard was first reached in February 2023.

“We know there is more to do, which is why we have opened 100 community diagnostic centers since July 2021.

“These one-stop-shops have performed more than 3.6 million tests, checks and scans to ensure patients have access to the best medical advice when and where they need it.”