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The government has failed to meet its own cancer treatment targets, creating further headaches for Rishi Sunak and his flagship promise to reduce NHS waiting lists.
Latest NHS figures show 92,000 patients have been waiting more than 65 weeks for treatment, and in January 10,000 cancer patients were waiting more than two months to start treatment.
The Prime Minister had promised to end waiting times of more than 65 weeks for elective treatments by March, but this deadline has been pushed back to September.
Mr Sunak also promised to improve performance against the standard waiting period of 62 days for cancer treatment to 70% by this month, but an update from the NHS on Thursday said this would be extended by a year to March 2025. It was shown that
This means that the government is currently failing to meet all of its targets to reduce waiting lists, and is of particular concern for people waiting for cancer treatment, who need to start treatment early. The longer you stay, the better your chance of survival.
According to Cancer Research, almost all women with breast cancer will survive five years or more if diagnosed early. If breast cancer is diagnosed and treated at its most advanced stage, this rate decreases to around 3 in 10 women.
Meanwhile, more than 9 out of 10 people with colorectal cancer will survive five years or more if diagnosed early. If colorectal cancer were diagnosed and treated at its most advanced stage, this rate would drop to 1 in 10 women.
Latest figures show the total number of people on NHS waiting lists is now 7.61 million, down slightly on last month but still up from 719 when Mr Sunak outlined his pledge to cut waiting lists last year. This is an increase from 10,000 people.
This is a further blow to Mr Sunak and the five key promises he said the public should use to judge his position as prime minister, including a promise to cut NHS waiting lists. Dew.
The Prime Minister admitted in February that promises to reduce medical waiting lists were “not going far enough”. In an interview with Piers Morgan on Talk TV, Sunak was asked if that meant he couldn’t deliver on his promise, to which he replied: “Yes, that’s correct.”
Ministers have repeatedly blamed strikes by health unions for slowing progress, and Mr Sunak last month claimed that “industrial activity is having an impact” on efforts to clear the backlog.
In a statement announcing the delay to the health care target on Thursday, the NHS Confederation said: “The threat of further industrial action including in GPs, long waiting lists and continued pressure in wider areas such as social care”. The next 12 months will be “difficult”, he said. It’s another challenging year for all local services. ”
The report called on the government to “end the industrial action that continues to impede progress on the waiting list” to “give the NHS the best chance of recovery”.
Britain’s junior doctors last week voted overwhelmingly to continue their strike until mid-September over a long-running pay dispute, unleashing a new wave of disruption to the NHS.
Members of the British Medical Association (BMA) voted to launch further strike action on top of the 41-day strike since March last year, with 98% supporting further strikes and a turnout of 62%. .
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “Rishi Sunak has 400,000 more people on waiting lists than when he took office, meaning he has missed all of his targets to clear the NHS backlog.” Ta.
“When it comes to cancer, every minute counts, but Rishi Sunak has failed cancer patients, made them wait dangerously long, and led to appalling consequences. It will continue only if it is given power.”
It comes as a survey published on Wednesday found that satisfaction with the NHS has fallen to historic lows, with just a quarter of Britons believing the health service is working. I received what was shown to me.
Public confidence in the health service stands at just 24 per cent, the lowest level since polls began in 1983, according to an annual report by the King’s Fund and Nuffield Trust think tanks.
People cited difficulty seeing GPs as the biggest source of dissatisfaction, but half of those surveyed supported tax rises and more spending on the NHS, meaning the current state of the health service will be a major factor in the next general election. suggests that it is a priority for voters.
I Analysis of NHS England statistics shows that the postcode lottery for primary care is on the rise, with people waiting more than a month to see their GP in some parts of the country. . Midland had the worst patient booking delays at the start of the year, with more than 325,000 health exams waiting a month.