Bowel Cancer

(asked on 10th November 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department takes to monitor adherence to waiting-time standards for suspected bowel cancer.


Answered by
Steve Brine Portrait
Steve Brine
This question was answered on 20th November 2017

Maintaining and improving patient access standards, including the eight cancer waiting times standards is a key objective of the Mandate to NHS England in 2017/18. NHS England has set out their approach to meeting and improving patient access standards in the ‘Next steps on the NHS Five Year Forward View’ which was produced in partnership with organisations including NHS Improvement.

The Department uses performance data published on a monthly basis by NHS England to monitor compliance with the cancer waiting times standards and there are robust processes in place to hold NHS England and NHS Improvement to account for performance and ensure compliance with the cancer standard is discussed in the course of this process.

The latest data for September 2017 showed that the National Health Service is meeting seven out of the eight cancer waiting times standards. The data can be accessed at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/cancer-waiting-times/

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