This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Cancer treatment waiting times
13/10/2005
Cancer treatment waiting times figures for January to March this year show slight improvements for breast and lung cancers, but slightly increases for colorectal and ovarian cancers. Information on melanoma is produced for the first time.
Health Minister Andy Kerr said the lack of progress was disappointing but the benefits of investment aimed at driving down waiting times were yet to show in performance reports.
He acknowledged that the end-of-year cancer waiting times target - from December 2005 the maximum wait from urgent referral to treatment for all cancers should be two months - is going to be tough to meet.
Mr Kerr said:
"More and more Scots are living with and beating cancer. But that doesn't take away the concerns and anxieties felt by anyone who thinks they might have it. We must reduce waiting times.
"We set our target for the end of 2005 to be a big challenge for the NHS. We set a stretching target, and have always recognised it will be difficult to meet.
"We have invested £150 million in cancer services since 2001. We are working with NHS Boards to deliver the target and a raft of additional actions have been agreed to help them achieve this.
"But today's figures show the amount of work Boards need to undertake before the end of the year.
"That's why we have agreed delivery plans in June this year, with milestones, for each Board. I will be closely monitoring their performance against the plans.
"At each of the recent annual reviews I impressed on NHS Boards that delivering change and improving cancer waiting times are top priorities.
"NHS Boards must take action to now and show rapid and demonstrable improvements. We have increased capacity to treat patients with cancer. There are now 300 additional staff including doctors, nurses and other health professionals delivering treatment and care across Scotland.
"We have replaced old scanning and treatment equipment and put in extra new state of the art imaging, radiotherapy and other equipment in hospitals, with innovative use to treat patients in rural communities.
"By the end of 2007 patients will wait no more than nine weeks for any MRI or CT scans and other key diagnostic tests. This will also assist in driving down waiting times for cancer treatment."
Performance against the two-month target by December 2005 for the quarter January-March 2005 is listed below with the previous quarter in brackets:
- Breast cancer 86.3 per cent (84.8 per cent)
- Lung cancer 71.8 per cent (68.5 per cent)
- Ovarian cancer 78.9 per cent (85.7 per cent)
- Colorectal cancer 47.5 per cent (57.3 per cent)
- Melanoma 75 per cent (new statistics)
- Average 73.2 per cent (not comparable due to new statistics)
One of the most significant actions that is making a difference in many areas is putting in place 'trackers' - staff who are responsible for tracking all urgent referrals through the system from referral, through the range of diagnostic services such as laboratory tests and imaging (for example x-rays, CT/MRI scans, endoscopy, ultrasound) up to treatment.
Other improvements include:
- As a result of changes made to processing gynaecological referrals in Lothian, patients are seen by a consultant within eight days of urgent GP referral instead of a potential of 47 days
- In Dundee, time from GP referral to seeing a respiratory physician has reduced from an average of 23 days to 10.5 days
- In Glasgow a surgeon, clinic and radiology staff have reduced the waiting time for a patient to have a barium enema - Before, patients if urgently referred waited two to three weeks, with routine patients waiting longer. Now all patients wait a maximum time of two weeks
- In Tayside GPs, a consultant, nurse specialist and medical records staff have reduced the time taken to identify patients referred by their GPs to generically surgical services w ho need a colorectal opinion. Previously this process could take up to two months, now it takes two weeks