A cancer verdict in just four weeks

PATIENTS will be told that they have cancer or given the all-clear four weeks after seeing their GP, under NHS plans.

Simon Stevens, the head of the health service in England, will roll out a 28-day target next year to speed up diagnosis times.

Many patients currently wait several months between first going to their GP with symptoms and finding out whether they have the illness.

This is particularly true for those with harder-to-diagnose types of cancer.

Often they have to wait weeks between referrals, appointments and scans before finally getting a diagnosis. Any delay reduces the survival chances – because the cancer spreads to other organs and may become untreatable. It also increases the anxiety for patients and their families. The UK has one of the worst cancer survival rates in Western Europe and it lags ten years behind the rates in Austria, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. Experts have blamed this on late diagnosis.

Mr Stevens is expected to unveil the target on Friday as part of plans to improve the NHS. From April next year, local health boards – clinical commissioning groups – will have to ensure that 95 per cent of patients with suspected cancer are given a diagnosis or the all clear within 28 days.

The measure will enable NHS England to see which areas are performing well and which ones need extra guidance or funding to speed up the waits. But cancer charities are concerned the 28-day waiting time will not be met because the NHS is struggling to hit existing targets.

Health trusts are already meant to ensure that 95 per cent of patients receive their first round of treatment for cancer within 62 days of being referred by a GP. Figures last month showed only 79.7 per cent were treated in this time frame and the target has not been met since January 2015.

Sarah Woolnough, of Cancer Research UK, welcomed the 28-day waiting time, saying it was ‘absolutely key to improving cancer survival and patients’ experiences’. But she added: ‘The challenge for the NHS is to hit that 28- day standard when budgets, resources and staff are already stretched.’