The figures show the sheer scale of deterioration in NHS provision.
The percentage of patients waiting ‘too long’ for cancer treatment has tripled over the past decade, the latest figures for the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show.
In June 33.4 per cent of patients were waiting longer than the 62-day official standard for people to start treatment after cancer is suspected, up from 11 per cent between January and March 2012.
When it came to another government target, that treatment for cancer should begin within 31 days of a decision that it is necessary, performance had also declined. According to ONS data, 8.9 per cent of patients were waiting more than 31 days in the second quarter of this year, well above the 1.6 per cent queueing in March 2012.
The figures show the sheer scale of deterioration in NHS provision.
The new Labour government had pledged an extra 40,000 appointments, tests and scans a week at evenings and weekends during the general election campaign, as part of a plan to ‘catch cancer’ earlier.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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