cancer Patients have to wait for a long time Diagnosis Now they are detecting only half with new analysis, compared to four years ago. NHS England A target of 28 days.
For people with urinary cancer, such as BladderProstate and kidney cancer, 29 percent immediate referrals were found on time.
Diagnosis delay also means that one -third of patients have had to wait for more than 62 days for an immediate suspected cancer referral to start treatment, Cancer Research UK Said in his report.
In the last three months of 2021, 57.3 percent of the diagnosis was given within 28 days, but it fell to 52.3 percent by mid -2024.
John Shelton, head of the charity of cancer intelligence, said that there was a need for speed. “For those who keep cancer, we can diagnose it as soon as we can start treatment as soon as possible,” he said Independent,
“The longer we delay that process, the more it can adversely affect for some patients. Waiting for patients means that nights of worries, and therefore patients are waiting for a long time, they have an effect.”
From April to June 2024, more than 25,000 people had to do Wait over 28 days to diagnose With cancer.
The report further found that between October 2021 and June 2024, 53.8 percent of people had cancer, who were diagnosed within 28 days compared to 71.7 percent within 28 days, who rejected it.
Rapid diagnosis target (FD) Cancer is diagnosed or ruled for 75 percent of people within 28 days of an immediate referral.
NHS England reported to improve this target in recent months, but it is due to more people that cancer was denied, rather than diagnosed. The study recognized that people are being diagnosed with cancer, things are actually deteriorating over time.
NHS said it will publish separate data from Thursday for the number of people who receive cancer diagnosis or excluded it.
Cancer Research UK has urged the government to report the number of people who receive a diagnosis, who deny cancer.
Cancer Research UK stated that waiting time for some cancer types is longer than 28 days. More than half of the people diagnosed after a urological cancer referral waited for more than 42 days.
Mr. Shelton said: “We are talking about a quite a long period, and we know from evidence that a short growth in the size of the tumor can also lead to worse results, and it all depends on the type of tumor.”
Cancer Research UK chief executive, Mitchell Mitchell said: “Every single day can feel forever waiting for the diagnosis of cancer.”
Cancer research has called for the government to implement the ‘guarantee of cancer’ and increase the FDS target by 80 percent to meet the waiting time till the end of this Parliament. The original target proposal in 2015 was 95 percent.
Ms. Mitchell said: “The UK government needs to work. Its upcoming National Cancer Scheme for England should first include a new commitment to diagnose cancer, and the pledge to meet all cancer waiting time targets by the end of this Parliament, including an increased FDS target.”
A NHS spokesperson said: “NHS is looking at more patients and treating them – with an all -time high -level survival rate – and we know that early diagnosis and treatment are important.” This is why we are making our clinical goals more ambitious, and introducing the home advocate to help in more cases before.
“The Department of Health and Social Care will ask NHS to meet the target of 80 percent from March 2026.”
A DHSC spokesperson said: “We know there is more to do so and we are highlighting the inequalities that have caught our healthcare for a very long time.
“The National Cancer Scheme will determine how we will put NHS at the forefront of global cancer care, as we will continue to exploit very latest innovations, so that patients can be given the most state -of -the -art care.” Our plan for change is already making an impact, in which 148,000 more people were rejected within 28 days or dismissed within 28 days compared to a year. ,