Breast Cancer: Diagnosis
(asked on 24th March 2022) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the proportion of urgent referrals for suspected breast cancer that met the 28 day faster diagnosis standard was (a) in general and (b) according to diagnosis outcome in each month for the last year.
Answered by
Maria Caulfield
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The following table shows the proportion of referrals in England for suspected breast cancer within the 28 day faster diagnosis standard between April 2021 and January 2022, the most recent data available. Data by diagnostic outcome is not collected.
April 2021 | 88.8% |
May 2021 | 88.8% |
June 2021 | 88.2% |
July 2021 | 91.7% |
August 2021 | 91.5% |
September 2021 | 93.2% |
October 2021 | 92.5% |
November 2021 | 86.9% |
December 2021 | 81.0% |
January 2022 | 74.5% |
February 2022 | 85.0% |
Source: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/cancer-waiting-times/
In the latter half of 2021, there was an increase in the number of referrals for breast cancer. This increase led to a subsequent decrease in performance in January 2022, due to the impact of the Christmas and New Year period.