Sky News analyses the data to see how the NHS is performing on cancer care - and what scrapping some targets might mean for patients
There are currently four main ways of measuring the NHS's performance when it comes to how well it is treating cancer.
As a summary measure, it should be no more than two months for someone to start cancer treatment after being referred.The target that is set to be removed occurs halfway through the diagnostics stage and surrounds consultant appointments. Patients can still be referred to a consultant, if it's a particularly complicated case or is deemed necessary for any other reason, but there's no requirement for it anymore.The one it is now focusing on - about getting a diagnosis within four weeks - has only been in place since April 2021, so it's hard to get a historical comparison.
In June that meant that 2,551 people, 8.7% of those who were confirmed to have cancer, waited longer than a month to start treatment, more than double the operational standard of 4%. “We’re making progress on cancer in terms of the number of people being checked. There were three million checks this year, 636,000 more than before the pandemic.
"If we're being cynical, on 4 August the data published by NHS England was appalling on all 10 targets [this number includes breakdowns of the other targets], and then 10 days later the targets get scrapped. Chris Thomas, from the commission on health and prosperity at the Institute for Public Policy and Research, expressed a similar sentiment to Professor Sikora and Mr Osborn, about needing more resources as well as the streamlined plan.
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