Reducing waiting times

Reducing the time taken to diagnose and then treat patients can contribute to improved outcomes, and lessen the psychological impact on patients. Cancer waiting times have significantly improved for those referred under the urgent care pathway since the introduction of waiting time targets.

In early 2007, the Department of Health held a stakeholders conference to identify ways of ‘Going Further on Cancer Waits’. This arose from a number of limitations identified in the current waiting time targets. For example, only about one third of all cancer patients were being referred under the ‘Two Week Wait’ and some cancers could not be referred under the urgent care pathway”for example if the cancer was discovered by a hospital specialist, such as a surgeon, rather than an oncologist.

The Cancer Reform Strategy announced additional expansions to current waiting time standards to:

• extend the 31 day standard to all cancer treatments, especially for radiotherapy;
• include patients identified with suspected symptoms of cancer from the national screening programmes in the 62 day pathway;
• introduce a maximum two week wait for all patients with breast symptoms.