Patients with suspected cancer must wait up to 2 years to be diagnosed by the NHS, damning analysis shows

Suspected cancer patients have to wait up to two years to be diagnosed and a year to start treatment, shocking figures show.

The “unacceptable” delays could give tumors time to spread, reducing survival rates and making treatment more expensive, charities warn.

The GGD must offer people an initial appointment with a specialist within two weeks of an urgent referral from their GP.

You must receive a diagnosis or all-clear within one month of referral and start treatment within two months.

But new data released under freedom of information laws shows people waited up to 24 times longer than it took to be seen in January this year.

Figures released by the Labor Party show that the longest someone waited to see a specialist after receiving an urgent referral from their GP was six months or 171 days.

Patients waited up to nine months (262 days) for a test or scan and up to two years (671 days) for diagnosis or exclusion of cancer.

Meanwhile, they waited more than a year (397 days) to start cancer treatment.

These patients had not completed their cancer when the responses were sent, so they may have to wait.

Sources say the extraordinary delays may be due to “patient decisions” or “complex medical and clinically justifiable reasons” rather than a lack of capacity.

Last year, 500,000 patients with suspected cancer waited longer than the recommended two weeks to see a specialist after being referred by a GP.

Patients will face further disruption later this month when members of the Royal College of Nursing escalate their strike action to secure higher wages and refuse to offer cancer treatments for the first time.

Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said: “Cancer patients in England face unacceptable delays in essential treatments, demonstrating the need for urgent political leadership and action against cancer in England.

Years of underfunding have meant that an overwhelmed cancer patient population cannot meet the increasing demand.

“We are calling on the government to prepare a fully funded staffing plan for England that will increase the number of clinicians trained and address staff retention.

“Only then will people with cancer receive the care they desperately need and deserve.”

Around 52 of the 60 NHS trusts that responded to the FOI saw a patient wait more than half a year for their treatment to start in 2022.

In 2022, the longest waiting times were:

– Almost a year (350 days) for a specialist following an urgent referral from a GP for a patient in Lincolnshire.

– Almost two years (650 days) to diagnose or rule out cancer in a patient in Dartford and Gravesham.

– One and a half years (469 days) to the start of treatment in one patient in North Tees and Hartlepool.

Figures released by the Labor Party show that the longest someone waited to see a specialist after receiving an urgent cancer referral from their GP was six months or 171 days.

NHS England data shows the number of people waiting for routine hospital treatment rose by 10,000 to 7.22 million in January, a new record

In 2021, patients at five hospitals in England had to wait more than a year for treatment to start, meaning their cancer was likely to have spread.

A patient from the East Kent NHS Trust waited almost three years (969 days) to receive a cancer diagnosis or rule out cancer.

The latest official figures show that more than 2,000 people with cancer in England waited more than a month to start treatment after the clinical decision to do so was made in February.

Read more: War on cancer FAILED: Ministers could push back again on crucial target as hospitals overwhelmed by post-Covid crackdown

In addition, almost 6,000 people waited more than two months to start treatment following an urgent referral by GPs for suspected cancer – the second lowest performance ever recorded for that target at 58.2 per cent.

Saffron Cordery, deputy director of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said: “Cancer is a priority for trust leaders who understand the risks to patients who have to wait.

“The pandemic has forced people to wait longer for a diagnosis or to start treatment than the trusts wanted, but now the NHS is receiving more urgent referrals for suspected cancer than ever before.

And for the first time, the NHS has just met the faster diagnosis standard for suspected cancer, with three out of four people referred receiving a definitive diagnosis within 28 days.

A severe labor shortage and lack of capacity is impacting on cancer care, as is the rest of the stretched NHS.

“Trusts need more staff and investment to reduce delays and treat patients as quickly as possible.

“Screening, prevention and early intervention are also critical.”

Labour’s health spokesman Wes Streeting said: “How can the Conservatives claim that our public services are in good shape when cancer patients wait months and even years wondering while their cancer is allowed to spread?

“I know from my own experience with kidney cancer that when it comes to cancer, every second counts.

Labor will double medical school slots to train 7,500 additional doctors and 10,000 additional nurses annually, to be paid for by eliminating non-doms.

Cancer patients need life-saving treatments more than the rich need a tax loophole. And if Rishi Sunak agrees, why doesn’t he do something about it?’

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said the NHS had seen and treated a record number of cancer patients in the past two years.

They added: “More than nine in ten patients start cancer treatment within a month and the number of patients waiting more than 18 months for treatment has fallen by more than four-fifths since its peak last September.

“75% of patients’ cancers were diagnosed or ruled out within 28 days of referral, meaning NHS England’s faster standard of diagnosis was achieved for the first time in February 2023.

“We know there is still more work to be done, which is why we have opened 100 neighborhood diagnostic centers since July 2021.

“These one-stop shops have performed more than 3.6 million tests, exams and scans to ensure patients have access to the best medical advice, when and where they need it.”