94.9% of patients started treatment within the 31-day standard, which was the same as for the previous quarter and up from 93.5% for quarter ending March 2018.
For the 62-day target for treatment to begin after first referral with a suspicion of cancer, 81.4% were seen, the same as in quarter 3 of 2018 but down from quarter 4.
Though fewer are being treated within the 62-day target this must be contextualised against massive increases in demand.
Also, and I’m not sure on this, but won’t some of those referred be found to have no or a less-aggressive form of cancer not required speedy treatment or treatment at all? If so this would inevitably reduce the percentage of those going forward to treatment. Is not the 31-day target for those confirmed as being in need of treatment, the important one?
Do advise me if you know more about this.
Previous reports on cancer treatment:
BBC Scotland keeping away from this kind of NHS story This worrying report is all over BBC 1 ‘National’ News and the UK website but absent from any Scottish reports. Maybe the Scotsman will try to post it as if…
NHS Scotland smashes NINE Head and Neck Cancer Quality Performance Indicators
10 of the 14 targets for head and neck cancer were met or surpassed in 2017/2018. In particular the critical, less than 5%, targets for mortality were beaten by significant margins. https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Quality-Indicators/Publications/2019-05-14/2019-05-14-HeadandNeck-QPI-Summary.pdf
In the Independent today: ‘More people will die of preventable cancers and heart conditions because of the government’s failure to address “appalling” flaws in screening programmes, experts have warned. A damning report by MPs on the Public Accounts Committee found not one adult screening programme in England…
Why did we not see this man at the beginning of this dark and confused saga? After weeks of confused and agenda-driven poking around in the, too complex for them, matters of cancer treatment, Reporting Scotland have apparently stumbled upon…
LATEST: 96.1% of Lymphoma blood cancer cases treated within target time
Thanks to Miles Briggs, again, we see another indicator of how well NHS Scotland is performing under this SNP administration. Notably, the median wait is only 35 days and the median wait…
Earlier in the day, we heard the fact that ‘the vast majority of’ or ‘95%’ of cancer patients expressing positivity about their care, could be presented by Reporting Scotland, as merely ‘most.’ It was a clear attempt to continue a…
Reporting Scotland describes 95% of cancer patients being positive as only ‘MOST being happy’
95% of Scottish cancer patients, ‘the vast majority’ are positive about their experience despite a massive increase in demand. Reporting Scotland chose to replace the statistic with the word ‘most’. Technically correct they’ll insist but given that 51% is ‘most’…
BBC Complaint regarding Breast Cancer Treatment in NHS Tayside
They’ll probably just deny it all again. Why do I bother? In the hope I piss them off having to reply and having to address me as ‘Professor’.
Talking-up Scotland 
David Leask reporting something more interesting at last. Vargas Llosa has some connections with Scotland dating from his award of the Scottish Arts Council Neil Gunn Fellowship many years ago. He was quoted extensively by the britnat establishment during Indyref 1 so it is good to see that he – like so many others – is now embracing the logic of Scottish Indy in advance of Indyref 2. Welcome aboard Mario Vargas Llosa – always good to have another Nobel Laureate backing Scotland’s cause. Link and snippet below:
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17727892.scottish-independence-now-probable-says-anti-separatist-mario-vargas-llosa/?ref=mr&lp=8
Scottish independence now ‘probable’ says anti-separatist Mario Vargas Llosa
HE was perhaps the biggest voice of the intellectual world opposing Scottish independence. Now writer Mario Vargas Llosa believes what he has always called “separation” is likely.
The Nobel Prize winner has declared that Brexit will result, simply, “in the disappearance of Great Britain”.
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Many thanks to ‘Petra’ across at Wings for directing attention to some update info regarding (UK) Television Licence cancellation numbers surging – deserves wide broadcasting so am just mentioning it here: Link and snippet below:
https://www.moneywise.co.uk/news/2019-02-04/tv-licence-fee-set-to-rise-number-viewers-cancelling-increases-to-over-860000
More people ditching the TV licence
More than 860,000 TV licences were cancelled in 2017/18 compared to 798,000 in 2016/17, according to figures obtained by The Times.
This amounts to 2,300 cancellations a day and marks the first rise in cancellations in five years.
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