§ Miss KirkbrideTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what estimate he has made of the number of cancer patients who will be seen per week by NHS consultants under the Government's proposal to ensure that no patient referred by a GP waits more than two weeks once it is implemented in April 2000; [94026]
(2) how many cancer patients referred by GPs are seen per week by NHS consultants at present. [94072]
§ Mr. DenhamThe Department does not currently collect data on the number of cancer patients seen by consultants per week.
However, data from the first quarter monitoring of the two week breast cancer standard, which began in April 1999, show that an average of 1,686 urgent referrals of suspected breast cancer were seen per week over the three months April-June 1999.
Health Service Circular HSC1999/205 requested that health authorities, in consultation with their National Health Service Trusts and local primary care groups, should undertake state of readiness surveys in preparation for the extension of the two week standard for urgent referrals for all cases of suspected cancer. These will include baseline assessments of numbers of urgent referrals. The surveys will be carried out on a rolling basis, in line with the planned roll out of the two week standard during 2000.