‘Deeply concerning’ backlog of thousands of cancer patients waiting months for treatment revealed

‘I have zero faith in the NHS, nothing. I’ve got nothing left,’ says kidney cancer patient left waiting months for diagnosis

Louise Gartside having treatment for following a kidney cancer diagnosis (Louise Gartside )

Thousands of patients with suspected cancer have been left waiting more than two months for treatment, according to new data that exposes the “deeply concerning” state of NHS urology cancer care.

Almost half of the patients urgently referred for suspected urology cancer, such as kidney or bladder, have been left waiting too long, with leaked figures obtained by The Independent showing an “urgent backlog” of 4,237 patients who have waited more than the 62-day national target as of August.

The NHS has a target for 85 per cent of patients to be diagnosed and treated within 62 days of an urgent referral. However, figures show just 57 per cent of referrals were seen within this standard in June.

Patients in areas such as the West Midlands are among the worst affected, with only 43 per cent of patients referred beginning treatment within 62 days.

Malcolm Packer, chief executive of Kidney Cancer UK, said: “We are deeply concerned about the current wait times for urology cancer services, which has undoubtedly a significant impact on patient outcomes.

“Our annual patient survey reported that 30 per cent of kidney cancer patients are taking over three months to receive a diagnosis from feeling unwell, with more than 45 per cent of those being diagnosed at critical late stages 3 and 4, greatly reducing treatment options. Improve diagnosis times and we will see an improvement in patient outcomes.”

Louise Gartside, from Cambridgeshire, told The Independent she had “completely lost faith in the NHS” after she waited three months for a scan after she was referred for a two-week urgent diagnosis by her GP with suspected kidney tumours.

The 50-year-old was referred in May 2023, but did not have her scan and results until August of the same year.

Ms Gartside said: “I chased them after a couple of weeks and I started chasing my doctor's reception as to what's going on. You google it and it doesn't look good, and you just want to know what's what and stop being in limbo.

“I continued to chase for quite a while, and then I went in because I was poorly with something else, and this doctor said to me, ‘Oh, well, if you're gaining weight’, which I was, ‘then it's obviously not cancer’ and I was like, ‘oh, that's good. And so I kind of stopped chasing.’”

However, months later after chasing again she was diagnosed with stage four kidney cancer and told she would have to have surgery to have her kidney removed.

Describing the moment the news was broken to her she said it was “awful” as there was no capacity within the cancer clinic she was told by a urologist who was not an expert in cancer.

“I have zero faith in the NHS, nothing. I've got nothing left,” she said.

Following her surgery, Ms Gartside said she was told by local services she was not eligible for further preventative treatment as the nodules left in her body were not large enough and so she has paid privately for ongoing treatment.

On Thursday data published by NHS England showed number of patients waiting longer than 62 days after receiving an urgent GP referral for suspected cancer was 18,751 in the week ending September 1, up from 17,545 in the week ending August 4.

An NHS spokesperson said: “While staff have been working hard to see and treat more people with cancer than ever before, we know that some people are waiting too long to receive a diagnosis or the all-clear, and there is much more to do to ensure all patients, including those with prostate cancer, receive high-quality and timely care.

“We are taking steps to tackle the challenges faced by cancer services, including improving the diagnosis of prostate cancer through the use of mpMRI scans, which means many men avoid the need for time consuming and invasive biopsies.”