Health Secretary expected to confirm scrapping of two-thirds of cancer targets

The new plans, known as the Faster Diagnosis Standard, propose that patients in England who have been urgently referred should have cancer ruled out or receive a diagnosis within 28 days

The scrapping of a target for patients to see a specialist within two weeks if their GP suspects they have cancer is expected to be confirmed within days under new plans by the NHS in England.

Instead the new “Faster Diagnosis Standard” proposes that patients who have been urgently referred should have cancer ruled out or receive a diagnosis within 28 days.

When a consultation on the proposals began last year, the NHS said that the current two-week wait target sets no expectation of when patients should receive test results or have a confirmed diagnosis.

Cancer Research UK said that the proposed new targets should lead to improvements in diagnosis.

The BBC reported that the outcome of the consultation is expected to be announced within days, although implementing the changes will be subject to final approval by Health Secretary Steve Barclay.

However, oncologist Professor Pat Price, who is co-founder of the #CatchUpWithCancer campaign, branded news of the potential new targets “ominous and deeply worrying”.

She added: “The performance against the current targets is shockingly bad and has been for many, many months now, deteriorating over years.

“The clear and simple truth is that we are not investing enough in cancer treatment capacity and getting the whole cancer pathway working.”

Under the new NHS proposals:

• Patients who have been urgently referred, have symptoms of breast cancer, or have been picked up through screening, should have cancer ruled out or receive a diagnosis within 28 days, also known as the Faster Diagnosis Standard.

• Patients who receive a cancer diagnosis will start treatment within nine weeks from the date of referral, dubbed a 62-day referral to treatment standard.

• Cancer patients should receive their first treatment within a month of a decision to treat following diagnosis, which the NHS calls a 31-day decision to treatment standard.

The NHS said that the plan would help diagnose more cancers earlier and save more lives.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has accused the government of "moving the goalposts" on cancer targets. He said: "I want swifter diagnosis, of course I do – both for the individuals concerned and obviously for the health service.

“With this government, it’s targets that they’ve repeatedly failed to hit. And now what they’re doing is moving the goalposts and even where they’re keeping targets after this streamlining, there’s targets they’re still not hitting.

“So just as we’ve had on the economy, just as we’ve had on asylum, we’ve got complete failure from the government on this front as well.”

At present there are nine cancer performance targets which span three broad areas, including: the two-week wait between a GP referral and first consultant appointment; a one-month wait for care once a decision has been made to offer treatment for cancer such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery; and a two-month wait from the urgent GP referral to a first treatment of cancer.

The NHS is supposed to meet a certain threshold for each target, for instance at least 85% of patients should start a first treatment for cancer within two months (62 days) of an urgent GP referral when cancer has been suspected.

But many of these targets have not been met for some time.

Under the new proposals, the Faster Diagnosis Standard will have an “initial performance threshold of 75%”, meaning that three-quarters of patients should have a diagnosis within a month.

When the consultation was launched, Cancer Research said that it would like to see a 95% target in the future.

New figures published by NHS England on Thursday showed cancer wait times remain well below targets set by the Government and health service.

In June, 261,006 urgent cancer referrals were made by GPs in England, up 6% on 245,595 in May and 13% year-on-year from 231,868 in June 2022.

Some 80.5% of patients saw a specialist within two weeks, down from 80.8% in May but below the target of 93%, which was last met in May 2020.

A total of 59.2% who had their first treatment in June after an urgent GP referral had waited less than two months, up slightly from 58.7% in May but below the target of 85%.

Meanwhile, 73.5% of patients urgently referred for suspected cancer were diagnosed or had cancer ruled out within 28 days, up from 71.3% the previous month.

The NHS elective recovery plan sets a goal of March 2024 for 75% of patients who have been urgently referred by their GP for suspected cancer to be diagnosed or have cancer ruled out within 28 days.

Prof Price said: “Without a radical new cancer plan we will just be making some modest headway in identifying cancer patients quicker, but then adding those newly diagnosed patients to a long and potentially lethal waiting list for treatment.

“This is a road to continuing poor outcomes including unnecessary deaths.”

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