THE NORTH Cumbria Integrated Care Trust (NCIC) has not a met a new key Government cancer waiting time target in any of the six months following its introduction, figures reveal.

Cancer Research UK said the Government needs to invest more in the NHS and raise its target to prevent tens of thousands of people across England being 'left in limbo' every month.

The Government introduced a new Faster Diagnostic Standard target last year for 75 per cent of people on certain cancer-related referrals to receive either a diagnosis or the all-clear within 28 days.

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But monthly NHS England figures show that between October and March, NCIC did not meet this target once.

In March – the most recent data available – the Trust got back to 62.1 per cent of its 1,062 patients within 28 days – down from 65.8 per cent in February.

This means 403 patients at the North Cumbria Integrated Care Trust were waiting too long to find out if they have cancer in the most recent month.

Cancer Research UK says they are among an average of 654,000 people across England affected every month.

The 75 per cent target has not been reached yet nationally – and fell to just 73.1 per cent in the most recent month.

Michelle Mitchell, Cancer Research UK’s chief executive, said: “Cancer waiting targets have been missed for years – the pandemic has only made this worse.

"Where you live affects how long you will have to wait – this is bringing stress and anxiety for those waiting."

'We are doing everything we can to reduce these waits'

Reacting to the figures, a spokesperson for NCIC said: “Waiting for a cancer diagnosis is a very anxious time and we know that our waiting times are longer than we would like. That’s why we are doing everything we can to reduce these waits.

“We have recently secured funding to provide extra diagnostic capacity and more staff and to improve our referral and diagnosis processes.

"We have an improvement plan in place which over the next two years will help to accommodate the increase in referrals we are seeing as well as reduce waiting times.

“We remind everybody that it is important for anybody who has noticed any unusual, unexplained symptoms such as a lump or bleeding to contact their GP as quickly as possible.”

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