By Professor John Robertson
Thanks to Dottie for alerting me to this:
In the Guardian, today:
The first report, by Cancer Research UK, found that 382,000 cancer patients in England were not treated on time since 2015. The charity investigated how many patients had begun treatment 62 days or longer after being urgently referred for suspected cancer. The national NHS target – under which at least 85% of people should start treatment within 62 days – was last met in December 2015.
For some reason, the actual figure for those starting treatment on time is not quoted.
For the period 1 October to 31 December 2023, it was 64.7% with 25 787 being seen late.
For the same period in Scotland, it was 71.1%, 9.9% better. Around a further 2 600 patients in England would have been seen on time, had the SNP been running the show.
Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jun/13/deadly-cancer-treatment-delays-rout
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/cancer-waiting-times/
Talking-up Scotland / Facts on NHS, Crime, ferries and everything else you can think of 
Better but without full control of our resources not good enough.
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I find it very hard to swallow that three unionist parties who support Scotland being ruled from London can stand up in OUR parliament and crticise OUR government who try every day to mitigate their parties’ damage to us and our country.
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Following on from that kc, after years of canvassing I find it very difficult to believe any Scot would vote for an English based political party. But I’m afraid that is the case.
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sad but true
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Another report on cancer care that is getting substantial mainstream media attention today is one from the Royal College of Radiologists. It majors on the under-resourcing of NHS cancer services across the UK. The key focus is on shortages of specialist clinical staff.
It has some noteworthy workforce statistics. Whilst reporting no growth in the clinical oncology consultant workforce in Scotland between 2022 and 2023 (Page 7), it records remarkable differences in the use of locum consultants across the four national services:
NI = 21% of this consultant workforce in 2023 were locus
Wales = 19%
England = 9%
Scotland = just 5%!
A large part of this report is devoted to analyses of INPUTS- specifically staff resources. Whilst it presents statistics for England, NI, Scotland and Wales, it fails (typically) to acknowledge that the NHS in ONLY ONE of these places is the responsibility of a government with ALL the fiscal and monetary powers of a normal nation-state.
Only in ONE of these places is there a government with the power to significantly increase the inputs, the financial resources to improve staffing levels, should it wish to do so. That is of course the government with direct responsibility for NHS England!
With all but the NHS in England hampered in increasing INPUTS, what does the report have to say about OUTCOMES? It does have one notable performance statistic – one that is likely to remain unreported in the media! (Indeed the Royal College’s report opts to make no specific comment upon it.)
This is shown in a graph on page 15 entitled ‘PATIENTS SEEN WITHIN 62 DAYS OF AN URGENT REFERRAL FOR SUSPECTED CANCER’. Here is what the graph reveals:
Percentage of patients seen with 62 days:
England = 63% (target is 85%)
Scotland = 72% (target is 95%)
Wales = 56% (target is 75%)
NI = 34% (target is 95%).
These are significant differences! So significant they will merit no reporting?
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apologies- should have given fuller reference to source:
https://www.rcr.ac.uk/media/5befglss/rcr-census-clinical-radiology-workforce-census-2023.pdf
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