Improving Cancer Waiting Times In Scotland
10th August 2022
£10 million allocated to speed up cancer services.
Cancer patients are set for faster access to treatment as an additional £10 million has been allocated to help improve waiting times.
The new money, to be shared among the health boards, will boost the number of operations available, creating extra clinics, and upskilling new staff to speed up the delivery of endoscopy, radiology and chemotherapy treatment to get patients the care they need as quickly as possible.
This builds on the Scottish Government's £114.5 million National Cancer Plan, to support patients and deliver equal access to care across the country that means anyone can access the best standard of care despite their location or background.
This extra cash is on top of the £10 million that was allocated to Health Boards last year (2020-21) to support the running of cancer services in the face of the pandemic. This delivered new healthcare staff, additional weekend clinics and operations for the areas that need it most and helped create a brand new Urological Diagnostic Hub in NHS Highland that is already showing signs of improved waiting times.
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf announced the fund while visiting NHS Forth Valley's Breast Cancer One-Stop Clinic, which has been funded by this scheme. This modernised service, provided diagnostics for more than 5,000 additional breast patients from out-with NHS Forth Valley during the pandemic and continues to see and treat 80-100 new patient referrals each week from the local area.
Mr Yousaf said: "Despite the challenges of the pandemic, NHS Scotland has consistently met the 31-day standard for starting cancer treatment with an average wait of four days once a decision to treat has been made - that's testament to the relentless efforts of our fantastic healthcare staff across the country. However we must to more to improve our 62-day performance.
"Covid has not gone away and pressures remain, which is why we are providing health boards with a £10 million cash boost to drive down waiting times so that cancer patients can receive the best care as early as possible."
There are two waiting time standards for cancer in Scotland. The 62-day standard is the time taken from receipt of urgent suspicion of cancer (USC) referral to start of first treatment for newly diagnosed primary cancers . Patients can be urgently referred by a primary care clinician or general dental physician; referred through a national cancer screening programme; direct referral to hospital where the signs and symptoms are consistent with the cancer diagnosed in line with the Scottish Referral Guidelines for example self-referral to A&E.
The 31-day standard is from the decision to treat to start of first treatment for newly diagnosed primary cancers, regardless of route of referral.
The 62-day standard states that 95% of eligible patients should wait a maximum of 62 days from urgent suspicion of cancer referral to first cancer treatment.
There were 3,861 eligible referrals for the 62-day standard, a decrease of 6.8% from the previous quarter, but a 7.6% increase compared with quarter ending 31 March 2021.
76.9% of patients started treatment within the 62-day standard, compared with 79.1% in the previous quarter and 83.0% for quarter ending 31 March 2021.
The 62-day standard was only met by NHS Borders.
The 31-day standard states that 95% of all patients should wait no more than 31 days from decision to treat to first cancer treatment.
There were 5,996 eligible referrals within the 31-day standard, a decrease of 6.2% from the previous quarter, but 3.5% increase compared with quarter ending 31 March 2021.
96.3% of patients started treatment within the 31-day standard, compared with 97.1% in the previous quarter and 97.7% for quarter ending 31 March 2021.
The 31-day standard was not met by NHS Grampian, NHS Highland and NHS Lanarkshire.
Background
Current standards for cancer waiting times are that 95% of all eligible patients should wait no longer than 31 or 62 days (Action Plan), with 5% tolerance level due to clinical appropriateness.
The 62-day standard applies to patients urgently referred with a suspicion of cancer by a primary care clinician, general dental physician, patients referred by one of the national cancer screening programmes, and direct referrals to hospital where the signs and symptoms are consistent with the cancer diagnosed, as per the Scottish Referral Guidelines e.g., self-referral to A&E.
The 31-day standard applies to all patients, regardless of the route of referral.
The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the results, some Boards have highlighted that staffing and capacity issues continue to impact on performance in the latest quarter.
