"Far too many patients are having to wait too long to start treatment which will unfortunately and inevitably increase the likelihood of more significant, long-term health impacts."
- Brett Hill, Head of Health & Protection at Broadstone
Before analysing data trends, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) highlighted that 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 patients shouldn’t wait longer than 62 days from receiving their cancer referral (or the “point of suspicion” in Wales) to starting treatment. England, Scotland & Northern Ireland also have a standard that patients should wait no more than 31 days from the “decision-to-treat” to beginning treatment.
Overall, the percentage of patients waiting longer than the 31-day standard for cancer treatment in England, Scotland & Northern Ireland has generally increased over the past twelve years. This trend can also be seen amongst patients waiting longer than the 62-day standard across the UK.
In England, there’s been a general upward trend in the percentage of patients waiting longer than the 31 & 62-day standards between Q1 2012 and Q2 2024. 33.4% of patients were waiting longer than the 62-day standard in Q2 2024 – this is over triple (11%) the percentage of patients waiting over 62 days for treatment in 2012. Likewise, 1.6% of patients were waiting longer than the 31-day standard for treatment in 2012, rising to 8.9% in Q2 2024.
Notably, NHS England published its ‘Delivery Plan for Tackling the COVID-19 Backlog of Elective Care Guidance’ in February 2022. This plan aims to address backlogs built up during the Pandemic and to tackle long waits for care. Since publication, the percentage of patients waiting longer than the cancer waiting times standards in England has been broadly stable.
Looking at the raw data, England experienced a dip in the percentage of patients waiting longer than the 31-day standard in Q4 2020, reducing to 4.3% of patients before returning to 5% or above in Q1 2021.
In Scotland, there’s been a general upward trend in the percentage of patients waiting longer than the 62-day standard, rising from 5.2% in Q1 2012 to 29.6% in Q2 2024. Meanwhile, the percentage of patients waiting longer than the 31-day standard has become more stable over time. In August 2021, the Scottish Government published the ‘NHS Recovery Plan 2021 to 2026’ which sets out plans to increase NHS capacity including the 31-day & 62-day standards. Despite this, the percentage of patients waiting longer than 62 days for cancer treatment in Scotland increased from 2022, before levelling in 2023.
In June 2019, Wales introduced a new 62-day cancer waiting times standard named the ‘Suspected Cancer Pathway’ (SCP), which was designed to include all referral sources with only minimal waiting time adjustments. Unfortunately, data is not available on a comparable basis before the introduction of the SCP.
38.7% of patients in Wales waited longer than 62 days from when cancer was first suspected to starting treatment in Q3 2019 – this rose to 44.7% by Q2 2024. Although there has been an increase, the percentage of patients waiting longer than the 62-day standard for cancer treatment has been relatively stable since 2022. This stability was triggered by the implementation of ‘Our Programme’ which was launched to transform and modernise planned care and reduce waiting lists in Wales.
Northern Ireland has seen a general upward trend in the percentage of patients waiting longer than the 62-day standard, surging from 20.1% in Q1 2012 to 66% in Q3 2023. Likewise, the percentage of patients waiting longer than the 31-day standard has more than quadrupled, increasing from 3.9% in Q1 2021 to 12.1% in Q3 2023.
In March 2022, the Department of Health Northern Ireland published ‘A Cancer Strategy for Northern Ireland 2022 to 2032’ which set out crucial actions to stabilise and reform cancer services over the next decade.
Commenting on these latest statistics, Brett Hill, Head of Health & Protection at Broadstone, said the data “lays bare the deterioration in NHS performance against cancer treatment targets that we have seen over the past decade, with the percentage of patients waiting too long for treatment more than tripling in England.”
He explained: “Early treatment is vital for improving outcomes following a cancer diagnosis. Far too many patients are having to wait too long to start treatment which will unfortunately and inevitably increase the likelihood of more significant, long-term health impacts.
“Therefore, it’s little surprise that businesses are stepping in to provide healthcare support for their staff that can aid with the quick diagnosis and treatment of serious conditions like cancers. This can not only improve patient outcomes but ease pressure on the NHS, reduce treatment costs and drive economic growth by keeping employees in the workforce,” Brett concluded.
Earlier this week, Group Risk Development (GRiD) called for more employers to support their workforce during periods of ill-health or injury. According to recent research commissioned by the industry body, only two in five employers offer their workforce support for physical health.
READ MORE: GRiD calls for more employers to support their workforce during periods of ill-health or injury
Katharine Moxham, Spokesperson for GRiD, said “While it’s good to see employers thinking broadly about their staff in these situations across the four main pillars of physical, mental, social, and financial support, these figures are low. We would like to see more employers prepared to support their workforce through these difficult times.”
