This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Cancer waiting times
27/01/2006
Data on waiting times for cancer patients in Scotland were released today.
Health Minister Andy Kerr has demanded that NHS Boards tackle the longest cancer waits as part of the ongoing drive to cut waiting times and reduce patients' anxieties.
Previously published data covering the period to 30 June 2005 were today released by hospital of diagnosis. Overall Board figures were published on 2 December.
Mr Kerr said:
"We have already seen that Boards had made some progress up to June. We expect investment and new ways of working to bring further improvements in the latter half of this year and in 2006. These figures remind us of the scale of the challenge which remains.
"I would caution against jumping to conclusions from data presented on diagnosis hospital by hospital. In many cases, patients are not treated in the hospital where they are diagnosed, that is why the data is normally published at NHS Board.
"Additionally, what looks like a delay in one case may in fact be a series of complex tests and other investigations to find out what is actually wrong with each patient. Again for these reasons, the recognised and validated data are normally provided at Board level to give a more realistic picture of performance.
"Nevertheless, anyone under the threat of cancer will have real anxieties. Long delays are unacceptable.
"That is why we have asked lead cancer clinicians and managers to ensure that all of the longest waits are rigorously scrutinised to confirm that there were sound clinical reasons for delays, and that action has been taken on any non-clinical issues.
"Cancer waiting times are a top priority and NHS Board Chief Executives are well aware of my views on this. All that can be done must be done to ensure that patients urgently referred are treated within two months.
"At such a critical and worrying time in their life they deserve no less."
The current target is that by 31 December 2005 urgent referral to treatment for all cancers will be no more than two months, or 62 days.
For the quarter ending 30 June 2005, median waits by type of cancer were as follows:
- Colorectal cancer - 53 days
- Lung cancer - 44 days
- Lymphoma - 53 days
- Melanoma - 25 days
- Ovarian cancer - 39 days
The longest time between referral and treatment was at the Western General in Edinburgh, where diagnosis and treatment for one colorectal cancer patient took 338 days. NHS Lothian has made it clear that long waits of this kind tend to involve patients who undergo a series of diagnostic tests and treatments before cancer can be diagnosed and are not patients who have been identified as having cancer and are awaiting treatment. They are, however, reviewing their investigative pathways and setting up a tracking system to make sure those patients who do require additional investigations progress through their clinical pathway in an appropriate and timely manner.
Today's data is published in conjunction with a Freedom of Information request to ISD Scotland. Full details of today's data are available from the Scottish Executive press office.
The Executive has invested £150 million in cancer services since 2001. In June 2005 we agreed delivery plans with milestones, for each Board, and are closely monitoring their performance against the plans. At each of the annual reviews this summer Mr Kerr impressed on NHS Boards that delivering change and improving cancer waiting times were top priorities.
As cancer treatment is specialised, not all centres carry out all treatments. For example, radiotherapy is delivered only in the five cancer centres in Lothian, Glasgow, Tayside, Highland and Grampian, thoracic surgery for patients from Tayside is carried out in Lothian, patients from Dumfries and Galloway with melanoma are treated in Glasgow etc.