Blackpool now among best for quick cancer diagnosis

Medics have made inroads in reducing the backlog of undiagnosed cancer patients, with Blackpool now among the better performing hospitals in the country.

A report to a board meeting of the Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust says: “The Trust has continued to exceed our in-year plan in reducing the cancer backlog for undiagnosed patients.

“The Trust continues to work towards eliminating waits over 65 weeks.”

Steps are also being taken to achieve the Cancer 28-day Faster Diagnostic Standard (FDS) with Blackpool recording its highest performance in year in July.

But challenges include “a notable rise in higher acuity of self-presenting patients and a rise in the number of long stay patients (21 plus days) on base wards.

“These factors have resulted in crowding in the Emergency Department (ED) resulting in a decreased ability to treat patients in a timely manner.”

The cancer 62 day backlog (where the target for diagnosis and treatment is within 62 days) has reduced significantly to 74 in July this year, from 161 in March this year when Blackpool was ranked seventh worst in the country.

Hospital deputy chief executive Steve Christian told a board meeting the hospital was now in the top 20 better performing trusts.

He added: “We are moving at a pace, not only improving our position but our ranking in terms of performance.”

Concerns were raised that cancer patients referred to other hospital trusts for specialist treatment could “fall through the cracks of the system”.

But the meeting heard this was unlikely as only patients with rare types of cancer were referred to specialist centres.

In other areas, the largest backlogs of 18 week waits are in the specialities of Gastro, Cardiology, ENT and Gynaecology with measures being introduced to tackle this.

Industrial action by doctors has also had an adverse impact on waiting times for patients.

This had hit particularly hard during the school holidays, with the next action due on September 19 and 20.

However the hospital said plans were in place to minimise the impact on patients who have so far been encouraged to attend appointments as usual.