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Cancer waiting times statistics
20/05/2008
Scotland's Chief Statistician today published Cancer Waiting-Times Statistics for October-December 2007. The publication includes the number of cancer patients urgently referred for each of the geographic health boards and the proportion of these treated within 62 days of referral, broken down by tumour site.
The main findings are:
- 93.6 per cent of reported urgently referred patients diagnosed with cancer in October-December 2007 were treated within 62 days of their referral
- More than 95 per cent of patients with breast (98.0 per cent) and ovarian (97.5 per cent) cancers were treated within 62 days of urgent referral
- More than 90 per cent of patients with each of the cancer types were treated within 62 days of urgent referral, other than head and neck (87.6 per cent)
- Each of the mainland health boards treated more than 90 per cent of cancer patients within 62 days of urgent referral
- NHS Ayrshire & Arran, NHS Dumfries & Galloway, NHS Highland, and NHS Grampian each treated more than 95 per cent of cancer patients within 62 days of urgent referral
- Previously published statistics relating to July-September 2007 indicated 91.6 per cent of reported urgently referred cancer patients were treated within 62 days of urgent referral
Contextually it is also interesting to note that the latest weekly performance management information indicates that Scotland level performance for 62-day urgent cancer referral-to-treatment for January-March 2008 is 96.3 per cent. These are unvalidated figures and experience suggests that there has been up to +/- 3 percentage point difference between the weekly performance management information and quarterly cancer waiting times statistics. The quarterly cancer waiting times statistics for January-March 2008 are due to be published in August 2008.
Official statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff.