'Cancer crisis' as thousands suffer delays to time-critical treatment and falling survival rates, warns leading doctor

A ‘ cancer crisis’ is unfolding as waiting times for treatment continue to soar, warn expert doctors. Thousands of patients are waiting beyond the 62-day timeframe they should receive NHS treatment, leading to serious reductions in survival rates, according to a leading cancer charity.

Immediate action is needed to tackle the delays as international research claims that every four weeks of treatment delay can lead to a 10 per cent reduction in survival rates, says cancer charity Radiotherapy UK. According to the latest figures for July alone, published by the NHS last month, 5,348 cancer patients waited beyond 62 days for cancer treatment following an urgent referral.

That figure marks more than a third of the month’s cancer patients, 38.4 per cent, suffering delays to their treatment.

READ MORE: More than half a million people now on NHS waiting lists in Greater Manchester

Despite fewer patients seeking treatment in July in comparison to previous months, the waiting times deteriorated. During the first quarter of the 2022/23 period, 62.1 per cent of patients were treated within 62 days of their referral.

That figure is down on the previous quarter, the final stage of 2021/22, which saw 63.9 per cent of patients treated by the target 62 days.

Professor Pat Price, co-founder of Catch Up with Cancer campaign and leading oncologist, responded to the latest NHS England cancer waiting times for treatment within two months of referral. The leading oncologist slammed Health Secretary Therese Coffey’s priorities for improving the NHS and cutting the huge treatment backlog.

In September, the secretary shared that her approach to the NHS will be based on the acronym “ABCD” – ambulances, backlog, care, doctors and dentists..

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