NHS Wales wants to accelerate cancer diagnosis for all

Wales will become the first UK country to introduce a new single goal for waiting times for cancer patients.

This is an effort to speed up the diagnosis and improve the survival rates of the 17,000 patients who suffer from it each year.

Cancer treatment will start on schedule for all patients as soon as it is suspected, not just for those with obvious symptoms.

The goal of two months from next June should eventually replace the two-way system.

Some fear that current cancer targets may not reflect the long wait times that some patients have to wait for a diagnosis or treatment.

Health Secretary Vaughan Gething said the change – to make Wales the first UK country to have a single waiting time for cancer – was the "right thing to do".

He acknowledged that existing targets had not been reached often enough, but said that 92% of cancer patients were treated within the specified time frame.

What is happening right now and why is this changing?

There are currently urgent and non-urgent ways to get treatment.

If you are urgent (and the signs of cancer are obvious), your GP has referred you to the hospital and your treatment should start within 62 days.

But if your symptoms are less clear, vague or there is a suspicion, could being a cancer – you may be confronted for months with different parts of the health service before the cancer is diagnosed.

The clock only starts when this happens and you then follow a non-urgent route of 31 days. It may seem faster but you have already waited.

Thus, treating all suspected cancers at the same time – and all getting a 62-day treatment goal as soon as it's suspected – will aim to see more "non-urgent" patients faster and allow more to survive.

Not only that, but because the non-urgent pipeline does not measure the time that people are bouncing around the NHS system before the decision to start treatment is taken, experts say it's impossible to determine the true ones delays.

Mr. Gething said boards of health would "report back" on the new target alongside existing targets.

He said: "Thanks to the double reporting of the unique cancer pathway, Wales will be the first country in the UK to adopt a unique wait time measurement for cancer.

"This reflects our aspiration to support early diagnosis of cancer and to ensure prompt and effective treatment for all patients."

What the experts say

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Doctors say that there are "considerable challenges" in the face of increasing demand, while they aim for earlier diagnosis in order to advance Wales in the rankings for cancer survival in Europe.

Professor Tom Crosby, Medical Director of the Wales Cancer Network, said he was convinced that the cancer pathway was ambitious, but that the goal was to improve patients' chances as well as their experience and to constitute a "platform" to improve access to screenings and diagnostic tests, which would be under increasing pressure.

"This could transform our cancer diagnostic services in Wales and I think this country will lead the way in this regard," he said.

"Scotland is very interested in what we are doing." England is considering something a little more modest, focusing solely on the diagnostic part of the trip. access to treatment after the patient's diagnosis is also a very important element, thing to do. "

Screening for cancer at an early stage – rapid diagnostic centers

Speeding up the process of diagnosing patients – including all the exams they need in a one-stop shop – has been the focus of a pilot project in two hospitals over the past year.

At Royal Glamorgan, 259 patients with vague symptoms of cancer were referred by their GP and benefited from the full range of tests at the same time. In total, 10% had cancer.

At Neath Port Talbot Hospital, 45 out of 385 patients had cancer. About half have not been diagnosed, but nothing is sinister and 40% have a significant problem, but no cancer.

Peter Hall, a retired construction worker from Swansea, was subjected to a scanner. A few hours later he had results and learned that he had no cancer, although he had a lung infection.

"That answered a lot of questions, everything was perfect," he said. "It would be nice if it could be increased for more patients, it's a wonderful idea."