The latest horrifying figures for cancer waiting times show that our country’s NHS is broken. The official target is for 95 per cent of patients to start receiving treatment within 62 days if they have been referred with an urgent suspicion of cancer.
But the performance slumped to 69.4 per cent of patients in the first three months of 2023, down from 71.7 per cent. A cancer diagnosis is terrifying for patients and their families, but the agony is compounded by an unacceptably long wait for treatment.
Patients worry that the disease will spread and the waits take their toll on a person’s mental health. The Scottish government has promised progress in bringing down waits, but in vital areas such as cancer we are going backwards.
