Page last updated: 17-NOV-2009

Cancer Waiting Times

Statistical Publication Notice

17 November 2009

Cancer Waiting Times April-June 2009.

INTRODUCTION

Under the Scottish Government's action plan Better Cancer Care, the 62-day target will be applied to patients urgently referred with a suspicion of cancer and extended to include patients who are referred through the national cancer screening programmes. The action plan also sets a new target that by 2011, 95% of all patients diagnosed with cancer, whatever the route of referral, will start treatment within 31 days from the date of decision to treat.  Work is underway in defining and measuring the new cancer waiting time targets.  The necessary changes to the official statistics data collection are being developed as part of this work, which is anticipated to begin reporting in May 2010. The statistics published here do not take account of these changes.
 
A consultation is now underway regarding the publication of new cancer waiting times statistics. Please take part by responding to the consultation. The documents can be found on this page.
 
Previous quarterly reports have been published by the Scottish Government and can be found at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/health/cancer/waiting-times. The quarter of April-June 2009 will be the first quarter published directly by Information Services Division of NHS Scotland.

KEY POINTS

  • 95.7% of reported urgently referred patients diagnosed with cancer in Scotland during April-June 2009 began treatment within 2 months (62 days). This is a small decrease from 96.0% in the previous quarter and up from 87.3 % in April-June 2007. The target set by the Scottish Government is 95%.
  • The mainland NHS Boards with the highest and lowest proportions of patients starting treatment within 62 days of urgent referral were NHS Lothian (97.2%) and NHS Dumfries and Galloway (91.8%) respectively.
  • The cancer types with the highest and lowest proportions of patients starting treatment within 62 days of urgent referral were cancer of the breast (98.4%) and lymphoma cancers (92.7%), respectively.
  • NHSScotland met the national target to treat 95% of urgently referred cancer patients within two months for the first time in the reporting period of October to December 2008, and this has continued through the period April-June 2009.

INTERPRETATION

The small number of patients diagnosed quarterly in island NHS Boards may lead to substantial quarter-on-quarter fluctuation in the percentage of people starting treatment within 62 days.  For example 50% of patients reported for Orkney in July-September 2008 were treated within 62 days whereas 100% were treated within the target time period for January-March 2009; the apparently large change may be due to the waiting times of one or two individuals. Therefore, many of the findings relate only to the mainland boards, and are indicated as such.
 
This publication is classed as Official Statistics. Although it has not been assessed by the UK Statistics Authority for potential designation as National Statistics, the statistics are produced in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics, available on the UK Statistics Authority website. It is expected that the new cancer waiting times statistics referred to above will be assessed by the UK Statistics Authority for National Statistics Designation.

DETAILED FINDINGS

This publication includes the number of cancer patients diagnosed in April - June 2009 that were urgently referred for treatment within each of the geographic health boards; the report includes the proportion of those patients treated within 62 days of referral, broken down by tumour site.   

The percentages of all cancer patients treated within 62 days, against a target of 95% by NHS Board are:

 NHS Ayrshire & Arran  95.4
 NHS Borders  92.5
 NHS Dumfries & Galloway  91.8
 NHS Fife  91.9
 NHS Forth Valley  96.6
 NHS Grampian  96.4
 NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde  95.9
 NHS Highland  95.3
 NHS Lanarkshire  96.5
 NHS Lothian  97.2
 NHS Orkney  100.0
 NHS Shetland  100.0
 NHS Tayside  96.8
 NHS Western Isles  75.0
 NHSScotland  95.7

 

In the currently reported quarter, the mainland NHS Boards with the highest and lowest proportions of patients starting treatment within 62 days of urgent referral were NHS Lothian (97.2%) and NHS Dumfries and Galloway (91.8%) respectively.

Looking across all of Scotland combined, the percentage of patients treated within 62 days of urgent referral by cancer type are:

 Breast  98.4
 Colorectal  94.2
 Head & Neck  94.6
 Lung  96.5
 Lymphoma  92.7
 Melanoma  96.5
 Ovarian  96.2
 Upper GI  94.8
 Urology  94.3
 All cancers            95.7

 

NHSScotland met the national target to treat 95% of urgently referred cancer patients within two months for the first time in the reporting period of October to December 2008, and this has continued through the period April-June 2009.

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MAIN CONTACTS:

Sharon Kennedy
Senior Statistician
0141 282 2318
sharon.kennedy2@nhs.net

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GLOSSARY:

Upper GI refers to  upper gastrointenstinal

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PRE-RELEASE ACCESS:

Under terms of the "Pre-Release Access to Official Statistics (Scotland) Order 2008", ISD are obliged to publish information on those receiving Pre-Release Access ("Pre-Release Access" refers to statistics in their final form prior to publication). The standard maximum Pre-Release Access is five working days. Shown below are details of those receiving standard Pre-Release Access and, separately, those receiving extended Pre-Release Access.
 
Standard (five day) Pre-Release Access:
Scottish Government Health Department (Analytical Services Division)
NHS Board Chief Executives
NHS Board Communication leads
 
Extended Pre-Release Access:
Scottish Government Health Department (Analytical Services Division)
This extended Pre-Release Access is given to a small number of named individuals in the Scottish Government Health Department (Analytical Services Division). This Pre-Release Access is for the sole purpose of enabling that department to gain an understanding of the statistics prior to briefing others in Scottish Government (during the period of standard Pre-Release Access).
 
 
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HISTORY OF THIS PUBLICATION:

Last Published: This is the first ISD publication; previous SG publications of Cancer Waiting times can be found at  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/health/cancer/waiting-times. The last publication was August 18 2009.
Next Due: February 2009
Data Available Since: On the SG website, http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/health/cancer/waiting-times
available back to 2004.


Main contact: Email Sharon Kennedy