Cancer and diagnostic waiting times for September 2024

Commenting on the latest cancer and diagnostic waiting times for September 2024, President of The Royal College of Radiologists, Dr Katharine Halliday: 

"The latest figures show that, once again, progress towards NHS cancer targets remains slow, and with winter pressures soon to kick in, there’s a real concern that delays will only worsen. Performance against the 62-day cancer waiting time has, disappointingly, declined further, with 8,619 patients starting their treatment more than 2 months from their date of referral. 

“We are working against a stark 31% shortfall in clinical radiologists, severely impacting our ability to meet the rising demand for timely diagnostics and treatment. Between January and June of this year, 420,000 patients waited more than a month for their scans to be reported. We urgently need concerted investment in recruiting, training and retaining the radiology workforce to prevent further delays in diagnosis and care.”

In September 2024, 77.3% of patients waited less than 6 weeks for a diagnostic scan. The NHS continues to miss their target, that 99% of patients have a scan within this timeframe. 

To improve performance, NHS England have introduced an interim target to increase the percentage of patients receiving their scan within 6 weeks to 95% by March 2025. 

62-day wait from referral to treatment 

Progress against the headline 62 day waiting target has stalled. The NHS’ target is for 85% of patients to start treatment within 62 days of an urgent referral. In September 2024, only 67% of patients met this target, meaning over 8,000 patients waited over two months to start treatment following an urgent referral. 

The interim March 2025 target is for 70% of patients to start treatment within 62 days. We will need to see serious improvements in the next few months if we are likely to meet this. 

28-day Faster Diagnosis Standard

Once again, NHS England have met their Faster Diagnosis Standard – whereby 75% of patients receive a diagnosis or have cancer ruled out within 28 days of referral. This is positive, however, it is still the case that in September, over 65,000 patients waited over a month for their results following a referral. 

By March 2025, NHS England wants to meet a new interim target of 77%. This seems likely and we encourage NHS England to move towards the original 85% target more quickly. 

31-day wait for treatment 

In September 2024, 91% of patients started treatment within 31 days of the decision to treat being agreed with their doctor. This means that the target of 96% was not met, for another month. 

This is especially concerning when you break the statistics down by modality. Just 88% of patients are starting radiotherapy within 31 days of the decision to treat being agreed, reflecting clinical oncology workforce shortages. 

NHS England has not set an interim target for this measure – we would encourage them to include this when developing the 2025/26 operational planning guidance.