Waiting times for important conditions get worse, especially in parts of the UK where prescriptions are free. Too few staff, and poor manpower planning. It is getting worse.

My own cancer took 3 months to diagnose… and that was over 10 years ago. Rationing has got worse, but you wont know what is unavailable until you need it. Waiting times for important conditions get worse, especially in parts of the UK where prescriptions are free. Too few staff, and poor manpower planning. It is getting worse. NHS waiting times in England hit five year – health.org.uk‎ (Health UK)

DUE TO CUTBACKS WAITING TIME FROM THIS POINT IS 3YRS.

Chris Smyth reports 15th March 2019 in the Times: Quarter of new cancer patients left waiting too long to start treatment

Almost a quarter of cancer patients face delays to starting their treatment as NHS figures show the longest waits since records began a decade ago.

The health service has missed its main cancer target for more than a thousand days. The latest data also shows lengthening waits for emergency and routine care, days after NHS chiefs announced plans to scrap the targets that measure them.

In January 76.2 per cent of cancer patients started treatment within two months of a GP referral. The 85 per cent target has not been hit since December 2015. Fran Woodard, of Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “Behind the numbers are real people who tell us how delays cause anxiety for them and their loved ones at a time when they are already trying to deal with the many worries cancer is throwing their way.”

Because the population is ageing and detection rates are improving, the NHS saw 90 per cent more cancer patients in January than in that month in 2010, but the number waiting too long tripled.

Emma Greenwood, of Cancer Research UK, said: “These figures show an NHS under continued strain, with many patients waiting too long to get a diagnosis and start treatment. For anyone going through tests and treatment for cancer it’s an incredibly anxious time, and delays can make that worse. There simply aren’t enough staff.”

This week NHS England set out the most radical overhaul of hospital standards in more than a decade. It included plans, disclosed by The Times, to test replacements for a target that 95 per cent of A&E patients should be admitted or discharged within four hours.

Figures for last month show that only 84.2 per cent of patients were dealt with in four hours, the worst proportion since comparable records began in 2010. The previous low was 84.4 per cent, in January. The target has not been hit since July 2015.

Professor John Appleby, of the Nuffield Trust think tank, said: “We’re in favour of testing the radical overhaul of A&E targets announced by NHS England last week because there is a risk that the current one is driving poor behaviours. But it will be hard for . . . the public to have faith that this isn’t just lowering the bar.”

Six-month waits for surgery are up by a third in a year as hospitals miss a routine care target that is also likely to go. More than four million patients are on waiting lists for surgery and other routine care, with 552,219 waiting more than 18 weeks. The target that 92 per cent should wait less than 18 weeks has not been met since February 2016.

Professor Derek Alderson, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said: “While we support NHS England’s plans to pilot new targets and measurements that could improve care, changing targets will not solve the underlying challenges our health service faces.”

NHS England said: “Almost a quarter of a million more people have been seen within four hours in A&E this winter compared with last year . . . More people than ever are coming forward, with a quarter of a million more getting checked for cancer this year and thousands more being treated within the two-month target.”

• Thousands of patients “yo-yo” in and out of A&E in their final days. Analysis of NHS data by the charity Marie Curie showed that in 2017 more than 26,000 people went to A&E at least three times in the last 90 days of life. A lack of palliative care and doctors’ reluctance to broach end-of-life care have been blamed. Joan Brooks died last May aged 98 after going to hospital three times in her last month. Her daughter-in-law, Lynn, said: “I called it the yo-yo effect. We knew when we were taking her home that she would be back.”

BBC News 14th March 2019: NHS let me down, says health manager with cancer