All but two NHS health boards miss cancer waiting time target

Only two NHS health boards in Scotland met the 62-day waiting time target to treat people diagnosed with cancer between July and September this year, official statistics show.

The target, set out by the Scottish Government, states that 95% of eligible patients will wait a maximum of 62 days from urgent referral to their first cancer treatment.

According to figures published by ISD Scotland, only 83.3% of the 3,917 eligible patients started their treatment within this time frame over the three months.

The figure represented a slight rise on the 82.4% recorded in the previous quarter.

NHS Lanarkshire (96.2%) and NHS Tayside (95.2%) were the only boards to meet the 95% target for eligible patients.

Analysis by ISD Scotland also shows the Scottish

Government’s 31-day standard – which states that 95% of all patients will wait no longer than this from the decision to treat to first cancer treatment – was met, with 95.8% of 6,531 eligible patients over the period receiving first treatment.

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said: “It’s welcome that our NHS is treating more patients within both targets than we were during the same period last year.

“However, we’re determined to go further as there are some people who are having to wait too long for treatment.

“Once a decision to treat has been reached, cancer patients in Scotland wait, on average, five days for it to begin.

“Almost £20 million has been made available to support improvements in diagnostic performance this year – focused in both colorectal and urological cancer.”