Chamber and committees

Question reference: S5W-27699

Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: 2 March 2020
Current status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 9 March 2020

Question

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what percentage of people in the NHS Grampian area who were due to receive cancer treatment in 2019 were seen within the 62-day standard.

Answer

Data on performance can be accessed via the ISD website. Data for Q4 2019 will not be published until end March 2020.

Table 1. Cancer Waiting Times performance in NHS Grampian in 2019 (Q1 - Q3).
Cancer Waiting times	62 Day pathway
Cancer Waiting times	Q1	Q2	Q3	Total
Number of patients treated	368	408	408	1,184
Number treated within standard	281	354	325	960
Performance	76.4%	86.8%	79.7%	81.1%

Cancer Waiting times	31 Day Pathway
Cancer Waiting times	Q1	Q2	Q3	Total
Number of patients treated	685	763	788	2,236
Number treated within standard	636	716	749	2,101
Performance	92.8%	93.8%	95.1%	94.0%
https://beta.isdscotland.org/media/2875/2019-12-17 -cwt-table-1-compliance-to-standard.xlsx

While the average wait for patients on the 62 day pathway in quarter 3 2019 was 40 days NHS Grampian’s performance against this 62 day standard at 79.7% is not good enough. The Scottish Government published the £850 million Waiting Times Improvement Plan on 23 October 2018. The Plan sets out a series of actions to ensure the future delivery of waiting time standards for patients across Scotland by Spring 2021. The immediate focus is on improvements for patients whose treatment is urgent, who have a suspicion of cancer, and those who have been waiting longest for an appointment. £1,942,000 was released in 2019 to directly support cancer and diagnostic improvements.

Following the development of the Effective Cancer Management Framework we continue to provide tailored support to NHS Boards across Scotland including NHS Grampian.

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