2024 on track to be record worst year for cancer care

EMBARGO: Immediate Release

This year is on track to be the worst year on record for cancer care since the NHS last met its target in 2015 with the number of patients treated outside of the 62-day standard from referral to starting treatment set to reach 107,000 if current trends continue, according to analysis of the latest NHS data.

It should take 62-days from a referral to starting cancer treatment according to the NHS but already this year 72,000 patients have been treated outside this window. This puts it on track to reach 107,000 by the end of the year and be the worst year on record for cancer care since the health service last met its target of treating 85% of patients within this 62-day time frame in 2015. 

It follows from the entirety of 2023, which was also a record for the number of people treated outside the 62-day window, where 100,000 patients were not treated within this target across the full 12-months.

Staggeringly, this will be a near fourfold increase in the number of patients not treated within the 62-days. For the full year of 2015, when the NHS last met its 85% treated within 62-days target, 27,000 patients were treated outside the 62-days, through the first eight-months of 2024 that now sits at 72,000 and is on track to hit 107,000 by the end of the year.

The situation for cancer care in the NHS has been steadily getting worse with every year since 2017 seeing a rise in the number of patients treated outside of the 62-day window.

The Liberal Democrats said that the figures underscored “the legacy of neglect” that the Conservative Party oversaw in the NHS, and used their first full opposition day since 2009 earlier this week to focus on the crises in health and care.

Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care spokesperson, Helen Morgan MP said:

“When someone is diagnosed with cancer it is often one of the most difficult moments of their lives. We know that starting treatment as quickly as possible is vital to chances of survival in many cases and it is heartbreaking to know that there are far too many cases where people are waiting too long for care.

“The previous Conservative government should hang their heads in shame. Their legacy of neglect and mismanagement of our NHS has left patients without the care they deserve.

“It is now down to the new government to rise to the greatest challenge facing us, rescuing the health service. That is why I am proud that on our first opposition day of this Parliament, the Liberal Democrats put the crises in health and care at the heart of it and we will continue to focus relentlessly on tackling these issues.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

NHS data on cancer treatment can be found here.

First reported by the Telegraph here.