Northumbria Healthcare slammed after missing key cancer referral targets
Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust has been criticised over its failure to hit targets.
Bosses from the trust told Northumberland county councillors on Tuesday that while there had been improvements in the backlog of patients waiting longer than 62 days from an urgent referral for suspected cancer, there was still “pressure” for referrals for some types of cancer.
The trust is also set to introduce a new priority for 2025/26 to increase the percentage of patients with cancer being informed within 28 days.
The figures for this year have not yet been released, but will be included in the trust’s draft quality accounts set to be released at the end of the month. For the final quarter of 2023/24, 78% of patients waited 62 days or less for a referral against the national target of 85%.
NHS England data shows that, as of February 2, there were 59 people who had been waiting longer than the 62-day target in the Northumbria Healthcare area.
Speaking at Tuesday’s meeting of the council’s health and well-being scrutiny committee, the trust’s director of performance and governance Chris Jenkins said: “We have had a number of mitigating actions to improve our performance and improve access to service for our patients.
“We have had some success in many areas. One of these is around cancer, reducing the cancer backlog of patients and improving access to cancer treatment.
“We have seen some good progress in that area. We are doing well relative to others regionally and nationally – but we know we’re not where we need to be or where we want to be.”
Coun Georgina Hill, who represents the Berwick East ward, was critical of the NHS as whole – but stressed she did not blame either Northumbria bosses or local NHS staff.
She said: “Frankly, this is embarrassing. It just sounds like a fudge. Cancer targets have been missed again – this seems like quite a lot of waffle.
“Missing these targets is costing lives. We have these assurances year on year and nothing gets better. Nothing about this fills me with confidence.
“If I sound angry or frustrated, it is not directed at you. There’s also hard pressed NHS staff, and it’s not directed at them either.
“It is a national problem. There is a wider NHS crisis and fundamental changes need to happen.”
Mr Jenkins replied: “The proof is in the pudding. If we haven’t done something, we have to say we haven’t.
“Are we happy with this? Absolutely not. Do we want to do better? Yes we do – and that is what we’re aiming to do next year.
“We can only come back and say whether we have done it next year. We’re working extremely hard to do that.
“Can I give you assurance that we will hit every target? I can’t give you that today. I don’t think any trust in the country could do that.”