Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the 14 per cent fall in patients treated within 62 days of an urgent GP referral for suspect cancer at Devon CCG between September and November 2020 compared to the previous year, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that (a) people are presenting with cancer symptoms to their GP and (b) 62-day targets from GP referral to definitive cancer treatment are met during the covid-19 outbreak.

NHS England and NHS Improvement’s ‘Help Us, Help You’ campaign seeks to address the barriers deterring patients from accessing the National Health Service due to the pandemic.

The third phase of the NHS response to COVID-19 is to reduce the number of patients who have waited longer than 62 days from urgent referral to starting cancer treatment. Key actions to reduce long waits include expanding the capacity of COVID-19 secure cancer hubs, prioritising people for surgery on the basis of clinical need and drawing on the independent sector to increase capacity.