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NHS Cancer Waiting Times, April 2012

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Statistics on time taken from initial diagnosis to beginning of treatment.
This report covers the general principles and processes leading up to the production of our statistics.
The monthly National Statistics on Cancer Waiting times produced by the Welsh Government were released on 27 June 2012 according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

UK Statistics Authority website Statistics on Cancer waiting times include data for Welsh Local Health Boards (LHBs) for April 2012. The latest release updates the quarterly statistics previously released on 7 June 2012.

The key points for April 2012 are:

  • 87.4 per cent of patients (366 out of 419) newly diagnosed with cancer via the Urgent Suspected Cancer route started definitive treatment within the target time of 62 days. Since the quarter ending September 2008, this percentage has been around the low to mid 90s at the end of each quarter. It fell below 90 per cent in the quarters ending June and September 2011, but rose to 90 per cent for the quarters ending December 2011 and March 2012.
  • 98.2 per cent of patients (725 out of 738) who were newly diagnosed with cancer not via the Urgent route started definitive treatment within the target time of 31 days.  The longer term trend has been fairly static, varying for each quarter around 98 and 99 per cent since the quarter ending September 2007.
  • 3 of the 6 LHBs met the target that at least 98 per cent of patients newly diagnosed with cancer not via the Urgent route should start definitive treatment within 31 days.  2 of the 6 LHBs met the target that at least 95 per cent of patients newly diagnosed with cancer via the Urgent route should start definitive treatment within 62 days.

All figures relating to April 2012 are provisional. Note that there are smaller numbers in the monthly statistics, therefore care should be taken when interpreting percentages.

To access the monthly data (that contains breakdowns by LHB), please go to the StatsWales website. Please note that the data is released monthly via StatsWales on a headline page. On a quarterly basis, we produce a Statistical Release that includes the data for the previous three months, detailed commentary and information on the targets and any revisions.

We also produce a quality report that has information about the methodology, how the data (monthly and quarterly) is released, definitions, information on disclosure and details on how revisions to the data are handled.

Revisions

There have been no revisions to the data for the quarter ending 31 March 2012, published in the 7 June 2012 Statistical Release.

Feedback

As this is a new approach for releasing cancer waiting times’ data, we would value your feedback.

Further information

StatsWales website.

Contact

Tel: 029 2080 1268
E-mail: stats.healthinfo@wales.gsi.gov.uk

Next update

25 July 2012