Cancer waiting times

Introduction

This quarterly report presents the validated results of the monitoring of waiting times for cancer services in England during the period January to March 2010. Information on the number of people who attended outpatient appointments within two weeks of an urgent referral by their GP for suspected cancer or breast symptoms and, for patients with cancer, on the numbers who started treatment within 31 and 62 days are included for each Trust. The numbers who started some types of subsequent treatments within 31days are also given for each Trust. Numbers of patients who were not seen or treated within the specified times are also included.

To reduce the burden of collecting these data on the NHS, and to ensure that, over time, there are further opportunities to minimise the impact of collecting cancer waiting times statistics locally, the Department has made the cancer waits data collection system interoperable with that used for the general monitoring of referral to treatment waiting times. This change to the reporting methodology was introduced from 1 January 2009.

Under this simplified process, cancer treatment providers no longer have to collect information about suspensions arising from a patient's unfitness for treatment or from their taking time to think about and discuss their various treatment options.