2 February 2022
House of Commons researchers found that half a million patients who may have cancer will wait more than the supposed two-week maximum to see an oncologist. On top of this, 75,000 confirmed cancer patients are expected to wait over the 31 or 62 days for surgery or chemotherapy that the NHS tries to guarantee.This alarming insight comes amid concerns that the NHS is too over-stretched to provide adequate care.
Shadow Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, commented “As this new analysis shows, terrifyingly large numbers of people are waiting longer than they should to receive vital cancer care and treatment with the insecurity of not knowing.” The Commons library was tasked with assessing the current NHS performance compared with the targets introduced over a decade ago that were aimed at guaranteeing cancer patients prompt treatment.
The study looked between the months of April and November 2021 and found 290,428 people presenting possible cancer symptom were unable to see a specialist within 14 days. In just 7 months of the year, this figure is even higher than the analysis for the whole of 2020, which recorded 235,549 patients facing the same issue. If this trend continues, by the end of the 2021/22 period in April, 498,000 people will not have seen a specialist about cancer-like symptoms. This presents a harrowing number, which is over 10 times higher than the same cases a decade ago.
There is a widespread fear that these delays to diagnosis and starting treatment could significantly affect survival rates. Head of Policy at Macmillan Cancer Support, Manish Patel, said “These figures show the huge challenge the NHS faces in clearing the cancer backlog. This is a time of real worry and anxiety for people waiting for a cancer diagnosis, with any delay creating the risk of a worse prognosis.”
Beyond diagnosis, the waiting times for treatment have also been rising at an alarming rate. The Commons study reported that between April and November 32,647 people failed to receive chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery within the 62 days after an urgent GP referral that the NHS sets out as a key cancer target. During the same period, 12,498 patients didn’t receive treatment within 31 days of being diagnosed.
The recent NHS elective plan has put cancer treatment as a top priority to tackle and acknowledges how fewer people sought advice for cancer symptoms during the pandemic.The plan sets out ambitions to return the number of people waiting 62 days for treatment from an urgent GP referral back to pre-pandemic number by March 2023. It also aims to get 75% of patients either diagnosed or cancer rules out within 28 days.