Waiting Times For Cancer Treatment Across The UK

30th August 2024

The devolved nature of UK healthcare policy means that healthcare is run separately, and differently, across the four UK nations; each nation has developed its own standards for the treatment of cancer, and associated targets for these standards.

All UK countries have a standard that a patient should wait no more than 62 days from their cancer referral being received (or the "point-of-suspicion" in Wales) to starting treatment; England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland also have a standard that a patient should wait no more than 31 days from the "decision-to-treat" the cancer to starting treatment.

Direct comparisons of the performance of the UK nations cannot be made, because of the number and complexity of the differences between the cancer waiting time standards across the UK, though comparisons in overall trends can still be made.

The percentage of patients waiting longer than the 31-day standard for cancer treatment in England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland has generally increased over the past 12 years.

The percentage of patients waiting longer than the 62-day standard for cancer treatment has generally increased over the past 12 years in England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland; the series in Wales covers the past five years and it has also broadly increased.

There was a break in these trends in 2020, when the percentage of patients waiting longer than the 62-day standard to start treatment declined while coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown restrictions were in place; there were corresponding increases around the time the UK's roadmap out of lockdown began in March 2021.

Read the full ONS report HERE