Cancer patients wait for over a year for life-saving treatment from NHS

24 February 2024 , 20:29

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Lib Dem leader Ed Davey has pledged to tackle NHS delays (Image: PA)

Cancer patients are being left waiting more than a year to start life-saving treatment. Last year, six NHS trusts in England recorded people waiting longer than 12 months. One patient at Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust waited a year and four months, or 503 days.

And others, at Bristol and Weston and Sandwell and West Birmingham, were kept in limbo for 455 days. The Government target of treating 85% of cancer patients within 62 days has been consistently missed since 2015. In 2023, 100,000 people were not seen on time, and just 64% started their treatment within two months.

Data from the Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce found that five-year survival rates for both stomach and lung cancer, the UK ranks 28th out of 33 countries of comparable wealth and income levels.

For pancreatic cancer, the country ranks 26th, for brain cancer 25th, and for liver and oesophageal cancers, 21st and 16th respectively.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey has pledged to tackle NHS delays by investing in more staff and diagnostic equipment and giving patients the legal right to start cancer care within 62 days.

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Mr Davey said: “We need to act on two fronts – reducing long delays while increasing funding for research to tackle this awful disease. I know from my personal experience the tragic impact that cancer can have after losing both my parents to this terrible disease.”

“Thankfully survival rates have improved since then, but we must go much further and faster to spare more families the heartbreak of losing a loved one to cancer in the years ahead.”

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: “Cutting waiting lists is one of the Government’s top five priorities.”

Mikey Smith