NHS Scotland Cancer Waiting Times

NHS Scotland publishes two key metrics relating to waiting times for cancer treatment:

- Cancer Wait Time – 31 Day Standard which monitors the time from a decision to treat has been made to first treatment start (i.e. when the cancer specialist review the patient and decides that treatment is necessary).
  The 31-day standard sets a target for 95% of eligible patients to start treatment within 31 days of a decision to treat and is target generally achieved.

Cancer Wait Time – 62 Day Standard which monitors the time from the initial urgent referral to first treatment start (this is usually when the patient’s GP suspects that the patient has cancer and refers then to see a specialist for further tests and positive diagnosis).
The 62-day standard, which in Scotland sets a target for 95% of eligible patients to start treatment within 62 days of the initial urgent referral has not been met for over a decade.

This post covers published data up to end of December 2024 and summarises the position across Scotland as a whole. The data used to construct these tables and charts can be downloaded at the bottom of the page.

There is a complimentary page which summarises 2024 data by Scottish Health Board:
Scotland Cancer 62 Wait Time By Health Board

There won’t be much discussion on the content of this page, the results need no further explanation and are simply not acceptable. Only urgent action by the Scottish Government to sort out the cancer care pathways and especially the delays in patients access to essential diagnostic services.

Kate Seymour, Head of Advocacy at Macmillan Cancer Support said in Dec 2024: “The number of people in Scotland waiting longer than the Scottish government’s target of two months to be diagnosed and treated for cancer has grown once again. This is not good enough. Today’s figures are showing little sign of improvement with thousands of people waiting too long to be diagnosed and start cancer treatment.” [1]

Some of the Reasons Given for these Delays (paraphrased) [2]:

NHS Ayrshire and Arran
- issues with CT and MRI scanners
- staff shortages in pathology
NHS Dumfries and Galloway
- reliance on a single CT scanner
- a sustained increase in cancer referrals impacting its prostate and colorectal cancer pathways
NHS Fife
- breakdown of its PET scanner impacting the lung pathway
- robotic theatre capacity issues
Forth Valley
- technical fault with a bone scanner
- workforce challenges across all specialties
- bed capacity was described as “very challenging”
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
- said colorectal oncology and urology are “particularly affected” by workforce challenges
NHS Shetland
- prostate cancer patients, who require MRI scans at Grampian Health board , were facing “significant” delays.
NHS Tayside said the number of urgent suspicion of cancer (USC) referrals to its clinics is increasing

Cancer Wait Time – 31 Day Standard

Performance data for Q4 2024 for all cancer groups is shown in Table 1. All cancer types with the exception of Urological (achieved 87%) cancers met the 31 day target of 95% of patients starting treatment within 31 days of the clinical decision to treat the patient. The category, All Cancers, is the summary attainment data for all of the cancer types listed and only just failed to reach the target due to the poorer Urological cancer results.

Table 1: Cancer Wait Time – 31 Day Standard results for quarter 2024Q4

cancer wait 31 day latest summary
Key to Table 1:
Quarter, the period used to provide the table’s data
CancerType, description of cancer location
referrals, the number of relevant decision to treat referrals
treated, the number of relevant patients who started treatment
percentage, the percentage achieving treatment within 62 day target

Cancer Wait Time – 62 Day Standard

Performance data for Q4 2024 for all cancer groups is shown in Table 2. In sharp contrast to the 31 day target, first treatment for none of the cancer types achieved the required target of starting within 62 days from first urgent referral. Breast, Lung, Melanoma and Lymphoma types performed less poorly than the other cancer types. Diagnostic delays may be a factor in the other cancers with the poorest performance against target.

Table 2: Cancer Wait Time – 62 Day Standard results for quarter 2024Q4

cancer wait 31 day latest summary
Key to Table 2:
Quarter, the period used to provide the table’s data
CancerType, description of cancer location
referrals, the number of relevant decision to treat referrals
treated, the number of relevant patients who started treatment
percentage, the percentage achieving treatment within 62 day target

Data for Individual Cancer Types

Figure 1: All Cancers Cancer Wait Time – 62 Day Standard

Figure 2: Breast Cancer Wait Time – 62 Day Standard

Figure 3: Cervical Cancer Wait Time – 62 Day Standard

Diagnostic waiting times are believed to be behind the low percentage of patients achieving treatment within 2 months of referral. The average wait for a colposcopy – a key diagnostic procedure to identify cervical cancer – has risen to 91 days from 79 in 2024. [3]

Figure 4: Colorectal Cancer Wait Time – 62 Day Standard

The charity Bowel Cancer UK speculates that lack of sufficient access to endoscopy diagnostic services is causing the delays in colorectal cancer treatments (67% meeting target). “We know that once patients are diagnosed with bowel cancer most are starting treatment within the 31 day target, the problem is they’re not being diagnosed quickly enough…..” [4].

Figure 5: Head & Neck Cancer Wait Time – 62 Day Standard

Figure 6: Lung Cancer Wait Time – 62 Day Standard

Figure 7: Lymphoma Cancer Wait Time – 62 Day Standard

Figure 8: Melanoma Cancer Wait Time – 62 Day Standard

Figure 9: Ovarian Cancer Wait Time – 62 Day Standard

Figure 10: Upper GI Cancer Wait Time – 62 Day Standard

Figure 11: Urological Cancer Wait Time – 62 Day Standard

Download Data

References

[1] https://medium.com/macmillan-press-releases-and-statements/thousands-of-people-in-scotland-are-waiting-too-long-to-be-diagnosed-and-start-cancer-treatment-433a73d14d04

[2] https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24410106.going-behind-nhs-scotland-cancer-waiting-times/

[3] https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/long-waits-for-cervical-cancer-tests-giving-women-sleepless-nights-5024497

[4] https://www.bowelcanceruk.org.uk/news-and-blogs/news/scotlands-cancer-waiting-times-have-improved,-but-not-fast-enough/

Data Sources

Cancer 31 and 62 Day Wait Times Are Published by Public Health Scotland Open Data Team
https://www.opendata.nhs.scot/dataset/cancer-waiting-times