GPs caught in middle as barely any hospital meets cancer target
Barely any hospital trusts are meeting NHS waiting time targets for cancer treatment, figures show.
An analysis of NHS England figures over the past year by BBC Verify found that only three trusts out of 121 hit the 62-day target for starting cancer treatment.
Experts in primary care warned that GPs are caught up in the middle amid the shocking figures.
In September 67.9% of people in England began their first definitive treatment of cancer within 62 days of an urgent suspected cancer referral.
The rate has been tracking at a similar level since March 2024 and has not hit the 85% target since December 2015.
In September, 73.9% of people were diagnosed, or had cancer ruled out, within 28 days of an urgent referral in September 2025, just under the target of 75%.
And 91.2% of people started treatment within 31 days of doctors deciding a treatment plan compared with a target of 96%.
But almost one in four trusts have been missing all three targets over the past 12 months, the BBC investigation shows.
Other regions of the UK are also missing targets from referral to treatment, figures show.
Professor Azeem Majeed, professor of primary care and public health at Imperial College London, said patients with suspected cancer who have been referred but are waiting for diagnosis or treatment often return to their GP seeking updates, reassurance, or guidance.
‘These patients frequently feel anxious, uncertain, and frustrated, and these emotions can be compounded by limited communication from hospital teams or confusion about what will happen next.
‘As a result, general practices become an important point of contact during this period, with GPs providing ongoing monitoring of symptoms to ensure that any deterioration or new concerns are identified promptly, and offering psychological support to help patients manage the stress of uncertainty,’ he explained.
‘These delays also have significant clinical implications, as there is clear evidence that longer waits for cancer diagnosis and treatment lead to poorer health outcomes.
‘Reducing these delays and improving communication between primary and secondary care are therefore essential both to safeguard patient wellbeing and to maintain trust in NHS cancer care pathways.’
A Department of Health spokesperson said: ‘Cancer care is a priority as we turn around more than a decade of neglect of our NHS.
‘We’re working at pace to ensure patients get timely diagnoses and treatment – building more community diagnostic centres, offering evening and weekend appointments and spending £70 million on new radiotherapy machines to get patients faster access to the tests, checks and scans they require.’
In a blog post discussing the latest figures, Cancer Research UK said pressure on NHS cancer services had been mounting.
The impact of delays can be difficult to quantify, the charity noted, as it depended on cancer type, but one study estimated that a four-week delay to cancer surgery led to a 6-8% increased risk of dying.
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