Orkney NHS is one of the top performing services in Scotland for responding to people being referred for cancer treatment. The 62 Day Standard is that 95% of patients urgently referred with a suspicion of cancer will wait a maximum of 62 days from referral to first cancer treatment

In Scotland  87.5% of patients started treatment within the 62 day standard, compared to 87.1% in the previous quarter. The 62 day standard was met by five NHS Boards (NHS Borders, NHS Dumfries & Galloway, NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Orkney and NHS Shetland). For those with a diagnosis of cancer, 94.1% had their first treatment within 31 days ( 94.3% in previous quarter).

The standards are based on the 10 main cancer types: breast, colorectal, head & neck, lung, lymphoma, ovarian, melanoma, upper gastro-intestinal (hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB) and oesophago-gastric (OG)), urological (prostate, bladder, other) and cervical.

Shona Robison , Health Secretary for the Scottish Government said:

“While it’s encouraging that performance against our 62 day waiting time standard has improved, clearly we want to do more to ensure that our targets are met.”

“Backed by our five-year £100 million Cancer Strategy, last December I announced a number of changes to benefit patients and increase access for all cancer patients – particularly focussed on urology and colorectal cancer. We are also reforming outpatient services, streamlining access to cancer specialists and decreasing the time it takes to get a diagnosis.”

Latest cancer waiting time statistics