Cancer
(asked on 6th June 2016) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department holds on the average waiting time between cancer referral and diagnosis in each of the last 10 years.
The Department does not hold data on the average waiting time between cancer referral and diagnosis. NHS England collects data on cancer waiting times and these data are published on their website. The data comprise of organisational performance against operational standards that support waiting time commitments laid out in the NHS Constitution. These include the standard that 93% of patients should be seen by a specialist within a maximum of two weeks from urgent general practitioner (GP) referral where cancer is suspected. There are seven other cancer waiting time standards, but not one that measures waiting time between referral and diagnosis.
A national time series can be found at the link below:
The Independent Cancer Taskforce’s cancer strategy for 2015-2020 recommended a new standard that patients should be diagnosed with cancer, or have cancer excluded, within 28 days of being referred by their GP. Test sites for this new standard are in the process of being identified.