Birmingham hospitals trust has worst cancer referral times

Mick Ballard has been waiting four-and-a-half months to have the surgery he needs

Two thirds of people urgently referred to one of England's largest NHS trusts with suspected cancer are not being seen at its hospitals within the two-week target, NHS figures show.

Universities Hospital Birmingham (UHB) is the lowest performer in the country and is also second worst at starting cancer treatment within two months.

Healthwatch Birmingham said the figures could indicate "systemic problems".

The trust said it would continue to work to reduce waiting times.

Patients given an urgent referral by their GP and who are then diagnosed with cancer are meant to start treatment within 62 days. But UHB managed this with less than a third of those affected, figures from January this year show.

A prostate cancer patient, Chris Durcan, from Birmingham, went to London because he could not get his treatment in his home city.

While he was being treated, a friend who was with him, Mick Ballard, decided to get tested and has found out he too has prostate cancer.

Mr Ballard, also from Birmingham, waited four weeks to see a consultant and has been waiting four-and-a-half months to have the surgery he needs at UHB.

He said: "You're living with something that could be a killer and the longer it stays within you, the more chance there is that it's actually gonna do you... something drastically wrong, isn't it really?

"That's where I feel that we're actually letting down people."

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The trust, which runs Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and other hospitals, said it was establishing two additional temporary theatres

In January, a third of patients had their first consultant appointment within the two-week target at the West Midlands trust.

As a comparison, more than 90% at the similarly large University Hospitals of Leicester trust were seen within a fortnight.

Meanwhile, only 32.2% of people with cancer started treatment within 62 days at UHB, making it the second lowest performer in England.

Richard Burden, who chairs Healthwatch Birmingham, said: "Figures for people having to wait longer than two months for their cancer treatment were not good compared to other trusts even before Covid struck.

"[It] raises concerns in my mind that there may be some systemic problems here at the trust."

The trust said despite the "huge pressure" hospitals were under in January, cancer treatment continued with 380 starting their first treatments - 86.8% of them within a month of the treatment plan being agreed.

More than 2,700 were referred for checks, more than twice the number of referrals compared to the first Covid-19 peak in April, it added.

The trust said it was establishing two extra temporary theatres and had developed a plan which aims to "restore cancer diagnostic and treatment services and reduce the number of long-waiting cancer patients".

Among this group, about a quarter chose to "delay or defer their pathway", mostly due to concerns around Covid-19.