Cancer treatment at Warrington Hospital returning to normal

This is despite more than a fifth of cancer patients at Warrington and Halton Hospitals Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust having waited more than two months for treatment in February.

NHS data shows that 77.9 per cent of the trust’s cancer patients started treatment within 62 days of an urgent GP referral in February.

However, 11 patients had waited longer than two months, causing the trust to fall below the 85 per cent NHS target introduced more than a decade ago.

Despite this, the figure was up from 55.7 per cent in January and remains considerably higher than the national average of 69.7 per cent across England.

Dan Moore, chief operating officer at Warrington and Halton hospitals, said: “While we are performing above the national average for people receiving cancer treatment within two months of an urgent referral, and our figures are improving, we recognise that we still have a way to go.

“Our staff are continuing to work tirelessly to minimise the impact of the pandemic on wider services and waiting times.

“All cancer patients who have faced longer waits have been reviewed, with no significant harm noted in any cases.

“The situation continues to be monitored very closely to ensure that patients are reviewed as efficiently and safely as possible.”

The trust introduced a Covid-secure ‘green pathway’ in May last year for surgical cancer patients, after having to temporarily halt services in April due to Covid-19.

This sees patients screened for Covid-19 in advance of their surgery and additional checks, including temperature, completed on the day of admission.

Halton Hospital

Only patients who test negative for Covid-19 and who have been isolating in line with national guidance are permitted to enter.

The pathway is available at both Warrington and Halton hospitals, and more recently more complex cases have been enabled at the Captain Sir Tom Moore Building at Halton with the introduction of the Post Anaesthetic Care Unit.

Coronavirus had a significant impact on the diagnostic phase of the cancer pathway, and it is this which resulted in some of cancer patients not meeting the 62-days target.

Reasons for this include longer waits due to the logistics of keeping patients and staff safe, patients wishing to wait, shielding, patients testing positive for Covid-19 and the need for some to self-isolate.

A spokesman for the trust added that its number of urgent suspected cancer referrals from GPs has been back to pre-pandemic levels for several months now, and exceeds the number from the previous year.

This is supported by Macmillan Cancer Support, which said that nationally there were slightly more referrals for urgent cancer investigations in February compared to the previous month.

However, commenting on the national picture, the charity said the number of people starting treatment ‘remains lower than it would expect’.

Sara Bainbridge, the charity's head of policy, said: “This data further illustrates the catastrophic impact of Covid-19 on cancer diagnosis and treatment.

"It is vital that cancer services continue to be prioritised and that those with cancer are not forgotten.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said the Government is committed to providing high quality cancer care, with cancer diagnosis and treatment remaining ‘a top priority’ throughout the pandemic.

“More than 2.5million urgent referrals were made within waiting time targets in the past year alone, and for every coronavirus patient, two cancer patients received treatment,” they added.