By Professor John Robertson OBA
From Waiting times for cancer treatment across the UK A summary of the cross-UK comparability of cancer waiting time statistics that are published by each nation published by the ONS on 23 August 2024 for Quarter 1, 2024:
The percentage waiting longer than the 31 day [from the “decision-to-treat” a cancer patient to when the patient starts treatment] and 62 day standards [there should be no more than 62 days between a cancer referral being received by a hospital (specialist) to when a patient starts treatment]:
- England 9.8% and 34.8%
- Scotland 5.9% and 29.6%
- Wales not measured and 43.9%
- Northern Ireland 12.1% and 66%*
*NI Q3 2023 is latest information
So, based on the above NHS Scotland performs significantly better than NHS England and shockingly better than NHS Wales and Northern Ireland.
Of course, the ONS insist:
Although there are several similarities between the cancer waiting time standards across the UK, there are also many important differences. See Section 4: Similarities and differences in the cancer waiting times standards for further explanation. Because of the number and complexity of these differences, we have concluded that direct comparisons of the performance of the UK nations cannot be made. For example, the performance of the UK nations cannot be ranked based on these statistics.
I know, I know, but imagine Scotland had the worst performance, not the best, in the UK, how do you think ‘our’ media would react? ‘Scotland, cancer capital of the UK?’
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