Following the publication of the first set of cancer waiting times following the NHS changes to Waiting Times Standards, Professor Pat Price, a leading oncologist and co-founder of #CatchUpWithCancer said:
“Today’s figures are the first in the new cancer waiting times standards and they are desperately poor.
“But even more shockingly, as we predicted, changing targets in the middle of a crisis makes comparisons with previous performance difficult.
“Today’s new figures appear to suggest improvement whereas in the detail, the main 62-day treatment target following an urgent suspected cancer referral is the second worst on record, at only 58.2% of cancer patients their treatment on time.
“The grim reality is of deteriorating cancer treatment times following an urgent GP referral. We are concerned that the new collective target of 63.1% is being incorrectly interpreted as an improvement, when actually it is a different metric.
“If we want to measure how we’re doing in the face of this cancer crisis, we need to compare like for like. If we do not, we risk this dire situation not receiving the attention it warrants. Surely this is deserving of the new Health Secretary’s urgent attention. Is just presenting the cancer target data differently all that can be done to reverse this worsening cancer crisis? ”
VIDEO: Watch RTUK response to shift in NHS Targets.
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