Thousands of potential cancer patients waiting months for urgent referrals
Campaigners are warning the government that urgent action is needed to tackle the growing backlog
Last updated 11th Nov 2022
The number of suspected cancer patients across the UK who have been waiting for more than two months for an urgent referral has reached 33,510.
It's more than double the figure from the same time before the pandemic, (15,273 in February 2020) according to the latest data from NHS England.
It comes as campaigners warn the government needs to take urgent action to tackle an ever-growing backlog of cancer patients needing NHS treatment.
Professor Pat Price, oncologist and founder of the 'Catch Up with Cancer Campaign' said:
"The system is clogged up, it's not working as well and also now we're beginning to see the backlog come through.
"That's great, people are presenting but now we don't have enough treatment capacity to treat them. It's the same as everything, the trains and the airports, we've got to get all these things going again so that we can actually treat people properly.
"Last February at last, the then Secretary of State said we're going to have a war on cancer and all of us in the cancer community thought 'great' - at last we're getting this bit right. We've heard nothing since.
"We think they've given up on it, it seems. The worry then, with all this economic turmoil and cuts we might have now, what on earth is going to happen to cancer?
"We need to be absolutely banging on the door that cancer must be prioritised and front-line staff have so many solutions they want to put forwards that would improve matters and they're just not listened to. "
In March Savid Javid announced a '10 year plan' to tackle the cancer backlog.
He said "It is time to declare a national war on cancer, which is the biggest cause of death from disease in this country. It is a menace that has taken far too many people before their time and caused grief and suffering on a massive scale."
The newest Health Secretay, Steve Barclay has previously committed to making cancer care a priority.