§ Gregory BarkerTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations his Department has received concerning the introduction of a national standard method for calculating radiotherapy waiting times to enable waiting times to be directly compared between radiotherapy centres; and what plans he has to introduce such a national standard. [75749]
§ Mr. HuttonThe Department has received informal representations from the Royal College of Radiologists and others about the introduction of radiotherapy waiting times monitoring. The NHS Cancer Plan set out maximum waiting time targets for first cancer treatment, which will come into effect over the next few years. Arrangements to monitor these targets are currently being put in place and will cover radiotherapy where this is the first treatment.
Individual radiotherapy services are expected to audit their waiting times for radiotherapy as part of the national standards for cancer. This is monitored locally through the peer review appraisal process. We do not 836W collect data centrally on these waits. Radiotherapy waiting times data will be available when clinical audit datasets are implemented.