Page last updated: 18-MAY-2010

Cancer Waiting Times

Statistical Publication Notice

18 May 2010

Cancer Waiting Times October - December 2009

INTRODUCTION

This report provides statistics relating to the waiting times of urgently referred patients diagnosed with cancer during the period October-December 2009.
 
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.  The necessary changes to the official statistics data collection have been developed as part of this work.  The consultation period for the publication of new cancer waiting times statistics closed on the 8th January 2010.  The results of this consultation can be found on the New Cancer Waiting Times page.  Reporting against the new cancer targets will replace the reporting against the current targets on the 29th June 2010 following this final publication.  The statistics published here do not take account of these changes.
 
Previous quarterly reports have been published by the Scottish Government. The quarter of April-June 2009 was the first quarter published directly by Information Services Division of NHS Scotland.

KEY POINTS

  • 96.5% of reported urgently referred patients diagnosed with cancer in Scotland during October-December 2009 began treatment within 2 months (62 days). This is a small increase from 96.0% in the previous quarter and up from 93.6% in October-December 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 Borders (98.0%) and NHS Lanarkshire (95.5%) 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 (99.8%) and Head and Neck cancers (92.6%), 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 October-December 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.
 
NHS Highland figures for this quarter represent patients drawn from referrals sent in as urgent-suspected cancer.  This is due to local changes implemented to support collection of data for new cancer waiting times targets.

DETAILED FINDINGS

This publication includes the number of cancer patients diagnosed in October-December 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  95.8
 NHS Borders  98.0
 NHS Dumfries & Galloway  97.8
 NHS Fife  96.5
 NHS Forth Valley  96.0
 NHS Grampian  97.2
 NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde  96.6
 NHS Highland  96.1
 NHS Lanarkshire  95.5
 NHS Lothian  96.6
 NHS Orkney  100.0
 NHS Shetland  100.0
 NHS Tayside  97.5
 NHS Western Isles  80.0
 NHS Scotland  96.5

 

In the currently reported quarter, the mainland Health Boards with the highest and lowest proportions of patients starting treatment within 62 days of urgent referral were NHS Borders (98.0%) and NHS Lanarkshire (95.5%) respectively.

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

 Breast  99.8
 Colorectal 93.8 
 Head & Neck 92.6 
 Lung 96.5 
 Lymphoma 94.7 
 Melanoma 96.9 
 Ovarian 93.8 
 Upper GI 96.0 
 Urology 97.4 
 All cancers  96.5

 

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 October-December 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 gastrointestinal

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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
NHS Board prospective audit staff
 
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: February 16 2010
Next Due: 29 June 2010
Data Available Since: On the SG website available back to 2004

 


Main contact: Email Sharon Kennedy