Prompt treatment for patients with cancer
Patients with suspected cancer are not only being diagnosed sooner, they are being treated earlier in our hospitals too.
After recording some of the most improved treatment times in the country, our cancer teams were invited to be part of a national transformation programme.
Over the last 12 months, we increased by 14% the proportion of cancer patients starting treatment within two months of referral.
Not only was this the best improvement rate bar one other in the NHS, it meant we were treating four out of five cancer patients within the national standard of 62 days.
And that in turn means we have now met both national headline cancer standards six months earlier than the deadline of March 2026 set by NHS England.
For some time now our teams have exceeded the new faster diagnosis standard, to determine 80% of suspected cases within 28 days. (Our latest figure was 83%.)
Additionally in October, we treated 79.5% of confirmed cases within the 62-day timeframe (exceeding the 2026 target of 75%), compared to 66% in November 2024.
These results put us in the top quintile of trusts in England and are underpinned by parallel improvements to strengthen resilience and reduce the risk of slipping back.
For the 13th month in a row we achieved the previous performance target to start treatment for 96% of cancer patients within a month of the decision to treat them.
We also reduced the backlog of patients waiting more than two months to less than 5% (348), so for the first time in two years we have fewer than 400 waiting that long.
Other trusts can learn from our success now we are part of the transformation programme known as OPTICS (Optimising People To Improve Cancer Services).
Angela Wong, group clinical director for cancer and diagnostics, said:
Prompt access to diagnosis and treatment supports better health outcomes and reduces the number of emergency presentations, so meeting these performance targets is really positive for cancer patients.
These measures demonstrate that improved performance is being driven not only by shorter waits but also by stronger diagnostic capacity, improved pathway flow and greater system resilience.
The Government is expected to publish a new National Cancer Plan next week containing a series of steps to transform cancer care over the next ten years.
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Cancer faster diagnosis framework