Revised NHS cancer care targets just 'moving the goalposts', says Starmer

Keir Starmer has accused the government of "moving the goalposts" as the number of NHS cancer waiting time targets are expected to be reduced.

- Anna Bawden

The target that all patients should see a specialist within two weeks of an urgent referral for cancer tests by the GP is expected to be scrapped under NHS plans to streamline cancer targets.

The government has been consulting on the proposed changes, which would replace the nine existing cancer targets with just three.

Under a new "faster diagnosis standard", three-quarters of patients with an urgent referral, breast cancer symptoms or who are picked up through screening, should have cancer ruled out or receive a diagnosis within 28 days. Once diagnosed, patients should receive their first treatment within 62 days from referral or 31 days after the decision to treat.

The three targets would replace the nine existing cancer targets, 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 latest figures show that only 59% of patients started their first cancer treatment within two months of an urgent GP referral, well short of the 85% target. And only 62% of patients were seen within two months of a positive result from a national cancer screening test, compared with the 90% target.