Secret wait for cancer patients

CANCER patients are still waiting as long as a year to get life-saving hospital treatment, despite ministers' claims waiting time targets are being met.

Scotland on Sunday has obtained official hospital by hospital data, unpublished by the Scottish Government, which shows that for certain types of cancer, patients in some units are waiting an average of 100 days before getting treated.

In the most extreme case, an Edinburgh patient with urological cancer – likely kidney, testicular or prostate – had to wait 375 days after first seeing the GP before getting treatment.

In May, Scottish ministers revealed that they had met a target to ensure all "urgent" cancer cases were seen within 62 days. However, the figure does not include the thousands of so-called "non-urgent" cases – classified as such because GPs have not flagged up cancer as a possible cause of their illness.

In total, some 27,000 patients are diagnosed with cancer in Scotland ever year. But only 9,500 of them were classified as "urgent" by GPs. Once the non-urgent cases are included, hospital by hospital analysis of all cancer cases shows that:

• Between January and April last year, head and neck cancer patients at Hairmyres hospital in East Kilbride waited an average of 112 days after GP referral before treatment.

• Average waits at Falkirk and District Royal for gastrointestinal cancer between April and June was 118 days.

• In the same quarter, patients at Stobhill in Glasgow suffering from urological cancer waited an average of 105 days.

The figures also show that lengthy waits are still common for cancers such as breast cancer, where speedy treatment is needed. Of 28 hospitals treating women with breast cancer in 2008's last quarter, 14 had an average wait of over 40 days.

The longest a woman had to wait for breast cancer treatment was 172 days, for a patient at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

Women with ovarian cancer also experienced long waits. A patient at Monklands District Hospital in Lanarkshire waited 218 days. Other lengthy waits included 190 at Dr Gray's Hospital, Elgin, and 163 at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh.

Patients with lung cancer faced similar waits for treatment. At the Western General in Edinburgh, one patient had a wait of 242 days. Other long waits were recorded at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh (223) and Raigmore (160).

Aberdeen Royal Infirmary registered some of the longest waits across all types of cancer. In 2008 these included 172 days for a breast cancer patient, 220 for a colorectal patient, 156 for a lung cancer patient, 332 for a gastrointestinal patient and 247 for a urology case.

Health boards last night insisted some delays were unavoidable because of the difficulties in diagnosing complex cancers quickly.

Jackie Sansbury, director of strategic planning at NHS Lothian, said: "Cancers can be complex and the symptoms sometimes point to an entirely different problem, meaning diagnosis takes longer. This is the main cause of the lengthy delays that sometimes occur."

Boards are now pledging to do more to ensure that cancer patients are diagnosed more quickly in future so that their treatment can begin earlier.

But a waiting time guarantee to ensure everyone is treated within 18 weeks of their first referral is not due until 2011 – this already exists in England.

The fresh revelations come after ministers declared they had met a waiting time target to ensure "urgent" cancer patients were all being treated within 62 days of GP referral.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said last night:

"I want all cancer patients to be diagnosed and start treatment as quickly as possible, and it is concerning when this does not happen."

She added: "Patients who are urgently referred should be treated within a target of two months, or 62 days. Great progress has been made towards this target and the latest figures show it has now been achieved for the first time. Patients seen by their GP and not judged to have obvious signs or symptoms of cancer are 'routinely' referred and they are likely to wait longer to see a specialist."

But Michael Summers, vice-chair of the Patients Association, said the figures were "scandalous". He added: "I'm very surprised by the length of delays. It is time that the Scottish Health Boards got their act together and made sure everyone is seen within weeks."

Sarah Woolnough, head of policy at Cancer Research UK, said: "Although we fully support the Government's pledge to improve cancer services across the country, there is still work to be done if these goals are to be met across cancer types for all patients."

Laura Grossart, of Breast Cancer Care Scotland, said: "These figures show some patients are still facing worrying delays in access to treatment. While we do not know how this may affect an individual clinical outcome, we do know that prolonged delays can cause untold anxiety for women.