CANCER patients wait longer than a year for NHS treatment in the worst cases, hospital figures reveal.
The NHS target says 85 per cent should start therapy within two months but it has not been met nationally in England since 2015.
AlamyFC9NKT Busy corridor in NHS hospital in England[/caption]
An investigation found most hospitals had patients who waited over six months last year, with the longest delay at 469 days – one year and four months.
People have also lingered for months for appointments and scans.
Labour’s shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, said: “Cancer patients are left waiting and wondering for months and even years, while their cancer could be spreading.
“I know from my own experience with kidney cancer that every second counts.”
Doctors warn delays are likely to dent survival rates.
Michelle Mitchell, chief of Cancer Research UK, said: “Cancer patients in England are facing unacceptable delays for vital treatment.
“Years of under-funding has resulted in an overstretched cancer workforce unable to meet rising demand.
“We urge the Government to deliver a fully-costed workforce plan for England that increases the number of clinicians being trained and tackles staff retention.
“Only then will people get the care they desperately need and deserve.”
Labour’s investigation used Freedom of Information to ask NHS hospital trusts about their longest delays.
It found 10 out of the 60 that provided data recorded their longest wait from a GP referral to starting treatment as more than 300 days, and 52 had waits over 180 days.
Doctors will sometimes delay patients’ treatment on purpose to protect them – if they are pregnant, for example.
And hospitals must investigate any cases where a patient has been waiting 104 days or more.
NHS England said it is helping record numbers of patients with suspected cancer this year, with 229,721 people tested and 25,718 starting treatment in February.
A Department of Health spokesperson said: “The NHS has been seeing and treating record numbers of patients for cancer over the last two years.
“Over nine in ten patients are starting cancer treatment within one month, and the number of patients waiting more than 18 months for care has fallen by more than four-fifths since the peak last September.
“We know there is more to do which is why, since July 2021, we have opened 100 community diagnostic centres.”