Health leaders welcome new UK cancer targets but warn more ‘resources’ needed

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Clinicians and health experts welcomed the UK government’s plan to cut cancer waiting-time targets on Wednesday but warned that the pledge had to be matched with resources.

NHS leaders in England said that reducing the number of goals the health service has to meet from ten to three would mean that thousands referred for urgent checks each month would be treated sooner.

Among the targets being abolished is a promise that anyone with suspected cancer should have a first appointment with a specialist in two weeks.

Now NHS hospitals will be expected to ensure that three-quarters of patients are diagnosed — or have cancer ruled out — within 28 days of a referral; a tougher ambition of hitting 80 per cent of cases will be introduced in 2025-26.

The standard that patients with suspected cancer, or who have received a diagnosis, should start treatment within 62 days of their referral will be maintained.

The target that people who have a cancer diagnosis and treatment plan, should start it within 31 days will also be kept. 

Professor Peter Johnson, NHS national clinical director for cancer, said the faster diagnosis standard already in use would “mean more patients will benefit from a speedier diagnosis or the all-clear within a month, helping to relieve anxieties or enabling treatment to start sooner”.

Hospitals have been asked to work towards a 10-day turnaround when delivering diagnostic test results to patients who have received an urgent referral.

Jacob Lant, chief executive of National Voices, a coalition of health and social care charities, said shifting focus on to the time it took for a diagnosis, and for starting treatment, provided “more meaningful measures of performance from a patient perspective”.

However, the key now would be “to show patients and the wider public a clear trajectory of improvement”, he added.

Cancer Research UK, a charity, said the reduction in targets should set clearer expectations for patients about when they would receive a diagnosis or have their cancer ruled out.

But the organisation’s director of evidence and implementation, Naser Turabi, warned the change “will not address the systemic challenges that face cancer treatment and care”. 

Danny Mortimer, deputy chief executive of the NHS Confederation which represents health organisations, said altering the targets alone would not be enough to see an improvement. He added that “resources and infrastructure” would be required.

Separately, NHS England said 61,200 inpatient and outpatient appointments and procedures had been postponed due to the four-day junior doctors’ strike earlier this month.

The cumulative total of delayed treatments over eight months of industrial action across the NHS stood at 839,327, NHS England said.

Health and social care secretary Steve Barclay said the industrial action had cost the NHS “huge sums” and urged the British Medical Association union “to call an end to this needless disruption”.

In Scotland, a strike by junior doctors and dentists was averted after they accepted the Scottish government’s improved pay offer.

The deal amounted to a pay increase of 17.5 per cent over two years, including a pay raise of 4.5 per cent awarded in 2022-23.