Named and shamed, the NHS sites failing to hit crucial cancer diagnosis and treatment time targets… so how does YOUR local trust fare?

The ‘utter disgrace’ of NHS cancer care is laid bare today as the Daily Mail names and shames every provider who has failed patients.

According to the health service’s own rulebook, hospitals are expected to meet three separate targets for catching the disease and starting treatment quickly.

But our analysis of official NHS figures found that only two of the 135 providers listed have met all three targets so far in 2025.

Mid and South Essex Trust failed to achieve any of its three targets between January and August this year.

Charities, experts and MPs today demanded urgent action to tackle what has previously been called a ‘national emergency’.

World-famous oncologist Professor Karol Sikora, former cancer chief of the World Health Organization, described the situation as ‘a complete disgrace’.

He told the Mail: ‘All we get are ridiculous press releases about new ways to use old medicines and very expensive new treatments.

‘But the reality is that people are dying due to constant delays in getting to the front of the queue. ‘They would file a lawsuit in the US.’

Three NHS targets that are failing across England are:

• 75% of patients are diagnosed or have the disease ruled out within 28 days of emergency referral (74.6% in August);
• 96% of diagnosed patients begin treatment within 31 days of doctors deciding on a treatment plan (91.6% in August);
• 85% of patients are diagnosed and treated within 62 days of emergency referral (69.1% in August).

Nationally, the 31 and 62-day cancer targets have not been met since April 2021.

Professor Sikora added: ‘The two-month wait as a target is ridiculously long and, as you can see, even this is not being met.

‘Even in Poland, the target from diagnosis to treatment is seven days.

‘The solution is extremely clear; ‘We need to fast-track potential cancer patients.’

Only one of the two providers meeting all three targets every month in 2025 is a typical NHS trust: Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust.

The other is the Walton Centre, a specialist treatment center in Liverpool.

Using NHS England’s monthly statistics, our research included private sites carrying out NHS studies. Providers reporting less than six months of statistics were excluded.

Charities claim staff reductions, combined with the knock-on effects of Covid and strikes, have created a perfect storm.

The backlog has soared during the pandemic as routine services have been disrupted by efforts to control the virus.

Within the 31-day target, 30 sites managed to achieve this goal every month in 2025.

But a third never managed to achieve this.

Liverpool Women’s Foundation Trust scored just 55.2% on that measure in January; This was the worst score this year nationally.

At the 28-day target, six providers (Central and South Essex, North Lincolnshire and Goole, Royal United Bath, Queen Elizabeth King’s Lynn, Warrington and Halton and York and Scarborough) missed the target every month this year.

Conversely, one third consistently achieve this.

Figures show lowest one-month score among all providers Bradford Teaching Hospitals Trust at just 40.9% in August.

And over the 62-day target, 108 trusts missed the target each month. He only hit three consistently.

Royal Papworth Hospital Trust achieved just 17.5% of this target in January; this was the lowest figure in the UK for the entire year.

NHS bosses argue they are seeing more patients than ever in the fight against cancer, despite the drop in performance.

Urgent referrals have doubled in the last decade, thanks largely to government awareness campaigns encouraging patients to come forward with suspicious symptoms.

Survival rates are also at an all-time high, thanks to medical advances and plans designed to detect the disease early and make it easier to treat.

Such programs include diagnostic centers popping up in shopping malls, parking lots and football fields.

The UK has some of the worst cancer survival rates in the developed world, according to a 2024 paper by the Less Survivable Cancers Working Group.

It found that five-year survival rates for six different types, including lung, liver and brain, were just 16%.

The task force calculated that around 8,000 lives a year could be saved if people suffering from these conditions in the UK were treated in the highly rated health systems of Korea, Belgium, Australia or China.

Cameron Miller, deputy chair of the Less Survivable Cancers Working Group, said: ‘Any delay in cancer treatment can be distressing, but for the more than 90,000 people in the UK each year who are diagnosed with a cancer that has less chance of survival (brain, liver, lung, oesophagus, pancreas and stomach cancer), the time lost can be devastating.

‘These cancers progress rapidly, so early diagnosis and rapid access to treatment is absolutely critical.

‘The situation for these patients is urgent, as five-year survival rates are already below 20 percent. ‘The Government’s new cancer plan must tackle these delays head on, especially for cancers with less chance of survival.’

But overall, the death rate from all cancers has fallen by almost a quarter (22%), from 328 per 100,000 people in 1973 to approximately 252 per 100,000 people in 2023.

Labor is preparing to introduce a new, multi-billion pound patient information management system called Cancer 360 in the coming years to tackle waiting time backlogs.

According to Cancer Research UK, around one in two people are expected to be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives.

Liberal Democrat health spokeswoman Helen Morgan said: ‘Receiving a cancer diagnosis is one of the scariest moments in anyone’s life.

‘After years of neglect under the previous Conservative government, vital services are struggling to provide the treatment and care patients desperately need.

‘Long waits for cancer patients can be the difference between life and death, this is not an issue ministers can avoid.

‘It is now up to the Government to tackle the biggest challenge facing our country – saving our NHS.

‘This means putting the NHS first and giving our health service the resources it needs to provide patients with the life-saving care they deserve, so every patient is guaranteed treatment within 62 days.’

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: ‘We are prioritizing cancer care as we move past more than a decade of neglect by the NHS.

‘This is already paying off, with more than 135,000 people being diagnosed with or ruled out with cancer in the 28 days between September 2024 and August 2025, compared to the previous 12 months.

‘Thanks to a £2.3 billion investment, we are expanding diagnostic services, building more surgery centers and offering evening and weekend appointments. ‘The upcoming National Cancer Plan will set out how we will improve survival rates and provide faster, fairer access to life-saving treatment.’

An NHS England spokesperson said: ‘While overall data shows that hard-working staff have helped the NHS meet the Faster Diagnostics Standard for the majority of months this year, it is clear we still have a long way to go to ensure everyone receives high quality, timely care.

‘The NHS in England is seeing and treating more people with cancer than ever before, and we are working closely with the government on a new National Cancer Plan to reform services and deliver further improvements in early detection, survival and patient experience.’

WHAT DID GÜVENLER SAY?

A spokesperson for the Humber Health Partnership said: ‘We recognize that our performance in meeting national targets for cancer treatment underlines that we need to do better for the community we serve. We know that patients have to wait very long for treatment and we would like to apologize for any unacceptable delays. We are in the process of changing our approach, empowering our physicians, nurses, and other clinical professionals to play a direct role in shaping the care patients receive by using innovations in care and technological advances in treatment. Part of this new approach will focus on increasing capacity, such as site-specific treatment as well as additional clinical and diagnostic sessions, so that patients are seen and treated at an earlier stage by the right team. ‘This clinically-led improvement plan aims to tackle pressing issues in cancer services and support our clinicians to deliver safe, effective and compassionate care so our patients can be seen and treated faster.’

Chris Bown, interim executive chief executive of The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘Our patients deserve the highest standards of care and we are sorry to have fallen short in some of our areas of performance, including cancer. We are taking immediate action to address this problem and implement a Cancer Recovery Plan. Significant additional funding is being invested to tackle our cancer expectations. ‘This has already begun and includes using external providers to deliver activities that we do not currently have the capacity to provide ourselves, to reduce the time patients wait.’

Matthew Hopkins, chief executive of Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘Our patients deserve better and that is why we are absolutely focused on improving our position as a Trust. We are expanding diagnostic testing, outpatient clinics and cancer surgery opportunities to shorten diagnosis and treatment time. Our recovery plans are already in motion and we are working closely with NHS England and our wider health and care partners. Our aim is to deliver rapid and sustainable development, reduce waiting lists and continue to improve the quality of care we provide.’