Northwick Park Hospital
(asked on 11th September 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the performance of Northwick Park Hospital on cancer in the last five years.
London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust provides cancer services at Northwick Park, Central Middlesex, Ealing, and St Mark's Hospitals, with speciality cancer teams at each site. Performance data on cancer pathways is reported at trust level.
The trust demonstrated strong performance up to mid-2023, particularly for the Faster Diagnosis Standard, with 84.7% performance in July 2023 being 14.7 percentage points above the 75% standard, and the 31-day treatment standard, with 100% performance in July 2023 being four percentage points above the 96% standard.
From mid-202,3 data quality issues and a temporary reduction in activity following the implementation of Cerner, an electronic patient record system, plus capacity constraints, saw a decline in performance. Backlogs increased with the number of patients waiting over 104 days for treatment peaking significantly.
A recovery programme was implemented to reduce the backlog, using real-time data to drive action and accountability. Actions included increasing the trust’s capacity and workforce, with specialist nurses, radiographers, and consultants, plus extended hours and weekend clinics. Rapid triage and assessment pathways led to faster diagnosis, along with expanded one-stop clinics, especially for breast cancer and gynaecology, with more patients also being sent straight to test for lower gastrointestinal cancers.
By early 2025, the number of patients wating more than 104 days was close to zero, with a steady improvement seen in two-week waits and the Faster Diagnosis Standard. As the trust has started to stabilise its backlog, there has been significant improvement in the 62 day performance target with the trust continuing to be above the London target of 70%.
Latest waiting time performance from July 2025 has been promising, with the trust achieving 81.5% Faster Diagnosis Standard performance and 100% 31-day treatment performance. 62-day referral to first treatment performance was 83%, one of the best in the country.
Full cancer performance figures are published in the trust’s annual report, which is available at the following link: