More than 15 per cent of Islington Clinical Commissioning Group’s cancer patients waited at least two months to start treatment following GP referral, according to NHS figures.
During the 2017-18 financial year, 330 cancer patients were referred to hospital urgently by their doctors, but 55 did not start their treatment within 62 days.
The government has a target of 85 pc of all referrals to have treatment start within two months. In Islington CCG, 83.3 pc of patients began treatment within two months of an urgent GP referral, slightly below the target.
But it’s higher than 2016-17, when 75.7 pc of patients started treatment two months after referral.
An NHS England spokeswoman said: “Cancer survival is now at an all-time high, but as part of our push for earlier diagnosis, the NHS is deliberately putting itself under pressure by significantly increasing the number of people referred for quick cancer checks.”
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