Cancer patients seen within time targets at Shropshire's main hospitals

Bosses at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Telford's Princess Royal have hailed it as a "fantastic achievement".

For September, the latest month where figures are available, at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust 87.3 per cent of patients received their first treatment within 62 days of an urgent GP referral.

That is above the national average of 82 per cent and the trust's target of 85 per cent.

In addition, 96.55 per cent received their first treatment within 62 days after being referred following screening – above the national average of 93.7 per cent and the target of 90 per cent.

It is the first time the trust has hit all of its cancer waiting time targets in one month since October 2012.

Jackie Davies, cancer performance manager at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said performance against the targets had been steadily improving over the last 12 months, with positive trends being noted for each quarter.

She added: "The cancer services team have been working closely with colleagues across our care groups and centres to ensure that all patients have access to equitable and timely cancer care.

"Systems and processes have been streamlined to enable the cancer pathway co-ordinators to utilise their specialist knowledge to best effect, ensuring that our patients receive the optimum patient experience in a timely fashion.

"The cancer services team has facilitated a collaborative approach to working with colleagues from many other specialities both internally and externally. We are now supplying the right information, at the right time, to the right people to ensure that cancer care delivery is a continued priority.

"A further initiative introduced to improve performance has been a weekly review of all patients on a suspected cancer pathway and enhanced escalation processes to highlight and overcome delays.

"Work will now focus on sustaining this level of compliance and ensuring a positive patient experience for anyone referred to Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust with a suspected cancer.

"This is a fantastic achievement thanks to the efforts of staff throughout the trust, which ultimately benefits patients in the communities we serve."

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust is the main provider of acute hospital care for almost 500,000 people from Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and mid Wales.

It treats patients from Telford, Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Oswestry, Bridgnorth, Whitchurch, Newtown and Welshpool in Powys.