Scottish Government
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Cancer stats show 'vast improvement'
The performance of Scotland's NHS Boards over the last year in delivering the 62 day cancer patient referral to treatment target shows improvement but there is still more to do, Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said yesterday.
Ms Sturgeon was commenting after the latest quarter cancer waiting times statistics (April - June 2008), published by Scotland's Chief Statistician today, showed 93.5 per cent of urgently referred patients diagnosed with cancer began their treatment within 62 days of the initial referral.
The majority of Scotland's NHS Boards met or exceeded the 95 per cent target in one or more of the last four quarters and are working to tackle the last remaining challenges in order to consistently meet the target.
Ms Sturgeon said:
"Each and every target we have represents the needs of patients. Figures for the same quarter last year revealed just how much Boards needed to do to meet the target originally set in 2000 to quicken the timescale for patients to get their treatment.
"The figures published today show vast improvement on that position, helping us to see that the majority of patients diagnosed with cancer who were urgently referred are getting their treatment within two months. Eleven of Scotland's 14 Boards met or exceeded the target in one or more of the last four quarters.
"We're almost there but improvements still need to be made to ensure the target is being met in full in every board across Scotland. Boards can significantly improve their performance just as NHS Lothian and NHS Lanarkshire have been able to demonstrate over the last year - by 10 and 18 percentage points respectively.
"This bodes very well for a few Boards who are trying to tackle those last remaining challenges in order to meet the 95 per cent target. I know they are striving that bit further to treat all patients urgently referred within the 62 days and achieve full compliance. The Scottish Government's Cancer Performance Support Team, whose work with some NHS Boards resulted in significant improvements over the last year, will support Boards to focus on those obstacles which need to be overcome in order to ensure that patients are able to start treatment within the 62 day period.
"This continued progress is vital if we are to achieve the improvements we all want to see and implement advances such as those I announced at the end of last month when I launched our new action plan, Better Cancer Care.
"The 62 day current target will be extended to include patients who are referred through one of the national screening programmes and we will speed up the patient journey so that by 2011, all patients diagnosed with cancer, whatever the route of referral, will receive treatment within 31 days from the date of decision to treat.
"I know that staff across the NHS are working hard to deliver better, faster care and will continue these efforts for all the patients in their care."
Related Information
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/11/CanWaitTimeQ22008
