54 per cent of cancer patients start treatment at Peterborough and Stamford hospitals within NHS target times, according to new figures

Some cancer patients at hospitals in Peterborough and Stamford are not receiving treatment early enough, according to new figures.

Data from NHS England shows that in March just 54 per cent of patients who were urgently referred by the NHS, actually began getting cancer treatment at Peterborough and Stamford hospitals within two months of their referral.

That was up from 50 per cent in February, and up from 53 per cent in March last year.

Yet the NHS states 85 per cent of cancer patients urgently referred by a GP should start treatment within 62 days.

Nationally, some 260,308 urgent cancer referrals were made by GPs in England in March – but the proportion of cancer patients who saw a specialist within two weeks of being referred urgently by their GP fell from 86.1 per cent in February to 83.9 per cent in March.

Professor Pat Price, co-founder of the #CatchUpWithCancer campaign, said: “These quarterly NHS cancer figures are the worst on record.

"They show despite the heroic efforts of the front-line staff, cancer patients are likely to continue to die from waiting as well as from cancer itself.

"Without extra treatment capacity and a dedicated cancer plan we will continue to condemn cancer patients to avoidable delays and lives will be lost unnecessarily.”

Other figures show 75,646 patients were waiting for non-urgent elective operations or treatment at North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust at the end of March – up from 73,773 in February, and 61,243 in March last year.

The median waiting time from referral at an NHS Trust to treatment at Peterborough and Stamford hospitals was 16 weeks at the end of March – the same as in February.

NHS England figures also show that at Peterborough and Stamford hospitals, 12,314 patients were waiting for one of 12 standard tests, such as an MRI scan, non-obstetric ultrasound or gastroscopy in March.

Of them, 4,032 (33 per cent) had been waiting for at least six weeks.

North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust has been asked for a response.