By Professor John Robertson OBA

To the Editor of the Times, regarding the above article, being widely copied in MSM and exciting Unionists, I submitted a formal complaint with this content;

On cancer waiting times, you had:

‘The waiting times for cancer treatment are continuing to surge in England and Scotland, with only 73 per cent and 68 per cent of cases respectively meeting the 62-day target from the time of referral to the start of treatment.’

1. This is misleading as, based on your own graph below, the 73% figure applies to Scotland and not to England.
2. On the 62-day target, in Scotland, performance improved in the last quarter and has been stable since Q2 2023, not in any way ‘surging’ since a fall from Q3 in 2020 to Q2 2023.
3. authors have chosen to report only one of two cancer treatment waiting times, the 62 days from urgent suspicion of cancer referral to first cancer treatment and not the 31 days from decision to treat to first cancer treatment. Here for the quarter ending 30 June 2024, as per your report:
   England – 66.6% seen within 62 days and 91.1% within 31 days.
   Wales – 55.3% seen within 62 days and no data collected for 31 days.
   Northern Ireland – 34%(!!!) and 87.9%
   Scotland, 73.2% [up from 70.5% in the previous quarter] and 95.5% [up from 94.1% in the previous quarter].
4. Sources: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/cancer-waiting-times/cancer-waiting-times-1-april-to-30-june-2024/
   https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthcaresystem/articles/waitingtimesforcancertreatmentacrosstheuk/2024-08-23#:~:text=All%20UK%20countries%20have%20a,from%20the%20%22decision%2Dto%2D

On A&E Waiting Times, you had 65.9% were seen within 4 hours in Scotland and 72.4% were seen in that time in NHS England.

This is confused or dishonest.

Looking at the published data, from Public Health Scotland, we see that in September 2024, 69.4% were seen within 4 hours across ‘All’ A&E units, including those in small ‘cottage’ hospitals, and that 65.9% were seen in the full, consultant-led emergency departments, ‘ED’.1

From NHS England, for ‘All’ units, including those in small ‘cottage’ hospitals, the figure was 74.2% but, crucially for the full, Type 1, consultant-led units, the figure was only 59.8%, around 10% worse than in Scotland.2

That 10% matters. It relates to around 40 000 people in England waiting longer and 4 000 in Scotland seen quicker.

The Times authors, stupidly or deliberately have compared the English ‘All’ data with the Scottish full, ED, data to misrepresent the truth.

Sources:

https://publichealthscotland.scot/healthcare-system/urgent-and-unscheduled-care/accident-and-emergency/interactive-charts/how-long-people-spend-in-ae/
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/ae-attendances-and-emergency-admissions-2024-25/

In the light of the above, please:

1. Print a retraction of the above article.
2. Let me write it.

Many thanks
John Robertson (Prof Rtd)

Only 4 days later (17 days before a typical BBC response), this:

Dear Professor Robertson

Thank you for getting in touch about our article of November 28.

I propose the following. 

In the next available print edition we will publish the following: 

We wrongly said (“Scots wait longer for NHS recovery after the pandemic, News, Nov 28) that 73 per cent of cancer patients in England and 68 per cent in Scotland were seen within the 62-day target from the time of referral to the start of treatment. The correct figures are 68 per cent for England and 73 per cent for Scotland. The figures for casualty patients seen within four hours at all Scottish hospitals are 83.8 per cent in December 2019 and 69.3 per cent in September this year, not 81.6 per cent and 65.9 per cent as we said.

In the online article we will

— switch the England-Scotland figures, and 

— change “continuing to surge” to “remain far below the target” in this sentence

The waiting times for cancer treatment are continuing to surge in England and Scotland, with only 73 per cent and 68 per cent of cases respectively meeting the 62-day target from the time of referral to the start of treatment.

— change 65.9% to 69.3%, and 

— change 81.6% to 83.8% in this sentence

More patients are waiting longer than the target time of four hours at A&E than before the pandemic, with those seen in Scotland within that time falling from 81.6 per cent in December 2019 to 65.9 per cent in September this year.

— add a note at the end explaining the changes

Please could you let me know if this will settle your complaint?

Best wishes

Rob Nash

Feedback

The Times

thetimes.com

John Robertson
to Times

Rob

Many thanks for this honest, intelligent, response

Such a contrast with BBC Complaints

Would you alert me to these posts with the links when they happen

Much appreciated

John

12 minutes later

SM – Times, Times Feedback (sent by rob.nash@sunday-times.co.uk)	1:26 PM (3 hours ago)
to me

Dear John

Thank you for your prompt reply.

I’ve amended the online article — see here. 

I will let you know when the print correction appears.

Rob