Skin Cancer
(asked on 29th August 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to (a) help ensure that NHS skin cancer referrals are completed within the 14-day target and (b) address the backlog in Farnham and Bordon constituency.
The Department is supporting the National Health Service in taking steps to reduce the time taken from referral to diagnosis of cancer, including skin cancer.
As a first step, NHS England published guidance for local health and care systems and providers across England to achieve the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS) titled Implementing a timed skin cancer diagnostic pathway. The FDS pathway ensures patients receive a diagnosis of cancer, or rule out cancer, within 28 days of referral, as per the cancer waiting time standard.
Since 2023/24, NHS England has been rolling out teledermatology services, which allow virtual reviews of dermoscopic images, to support achieving faster diagnosis. In providers where these have been fully implemented, improvements in workforce capacity have been seen, in some cases doubling the number of patients that can be reviewed per clinic, and improving FDS performance.
Additionally, NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) national report has provided recommendations to encourage the wider use of technology to ensure skin cancer patients get faster and more equitable access to care.
In July, a report was published by NHS Frimley Integrated Care Board (ICB), which covers services in Farham and Bordon constituency, providing an update on elective care and cancer backlogs across the ICB. The report included steps taken to address the backlog, which included:
- the trust holding weekly meetings to review long waiters, cancer patients, validation and prioritisation;
- the use of more technology to improve appointments;
- supporting patients while they wait; and
- opening a new community diagnostic centre.
The report is available at the following link:
Finally, the forthcoming National Cancer Plan will have patients at its heart and will cover the entirety of a pathway including from referral to diagnosis.