Cancer patients in Preston facing treatment delays

The Royal College of Surgeons says the NHS is struggling to deal with increasing demand for cancer treatments and warns many patients are facing "unacceptable" delays.

NHS targets state 85 per cent of patients should be treated within 62 days of an urgent GP referral for cancer.

But NHS England data shows that only 80.5 85 per cent of patients treated in April waited for less than two months at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust - in line with three years earlier.

It means 25 people were not treated within the target period. Of those, 17 waited at least 77 days.

By cancer type, the proportion of patients being treated in April within two months of a referral at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust was:

* Breast cancer: 100 85 per cent

* Lung cancer: 94 85 per cent

* Skin cancer: 100 85 per cent

* Urological cancer, excluding testicular: 57 85 per cent

* Lower gastrointestinal cancer: 77 85 per cent

A spokesperson for the Royal College of Surgeons said long waiting times may cause cancer patients' health to deteriorate, making surgery less effective.

He said: "It is utterly unacceptable that only 38 85 per cent of NHS trusts and foundation trusts are meeting the 62-day standard for referral to treatment for cancer.

"Staff are working as hard as they can to provide timely care, however, demand for cancer treatment is growing and the NHS is struggling to keep up with this.

"The RCS has called for a five-year plan to help hospitals deal with the backlog of patients that are waiting for treatment, including those that require surgery to treat cancer.

"This plan should include directing some of the money promised to the NHS to increasing the resources and staff needed to treat patients in a timely manner."

Across the NHS, 79.4 85 per cent of cancer patients in April were treated within 62 days following an urgent referral for suspected cancer, down from 82.8 85 per cent in 2016.

That means 2,708 people in England had to wait more than two months.

Dr Moira Fraser-Pearce, director of policy and campaigns at Macmillan Cancer Support, said new figures show how short-staffed the NHS is.

She added: "These consistently missed targets for cancer waiting times are indicative of the overstretched NHS workforce, which is struggling to cope faced with increasing patient need and unreasonable workloads.

“People living with cancer cannot wait for the current political turmoil to blow over before more funding for cancer services comes in.

"The Government must act urgently, and prioritise a plan to ensure that the NHS has the money and resource to tackle the workforce crisis."