Shropshire’s hospitals hit targets for cancer waiting times
The Trust which runs Shropshire’s two acute hospitals hit all of its performance targets for cancer waiting times in 2014/2015, figures have revealed.
Performance has been improving consistently over recent months, with improvements in performance in each quarter for the last year at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, which runs the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford. This is a significant improvement for cancer services at the Trust.
During 2014/2015, 85.23% of patients received their first treatment within 62 days of an urgent GP referral (the target is 85%) and 92.24% of patients received their first treatment after being referred following screening (the target is 90%). GPs referred 17,045 patients to the Trust with a suspected cancer diagnosis and 94.76% of these patients received their first appointment within the two week target (the target is 93%).
Jackie Davies, Cancer Performance Manager at the Trust, said: “The Cancer Services Team has been working closely with colleagues across our Care Groups and Centres to ensure that all patients have access to timely cancer care.
“Working hand-in-hand with our colleagues in other departments, we ensure that patients are seen in a timely fashion at every stage of their treatment.
“We will continue to work hard to maintain these standards to ensure our patients have the best experience possible at what is always an incredibly difficult time.”
Jessica Hancox, Lead Cancer Nurse at the Trust, said: “This level of performance is a great achievement for the Trust. I hope this will reassure anyone referred to our hospitals with a suspected cancer diagnosis that they will receive prompt, effective, patient-centred care from staff who ensure our patients are at the heart of all they do.”
