Working with the NHS nationally, hospital trusts have tested the use of a faster diagnosis standard for people with suspected cancer – meaning that people can expect to be told whether or not they have cancer within 28 days of an urgent referral from their GP or a cancer screening programme – instead of the current standard of seeing a specialist within 14 days, with no measurement of when someone should be told the result.

The following NHS hospital trusts have safely tested the proposed new standard for cancer diagnosis:

• Mid Essex Hospital Services
• Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals
• Kingston Hospital
• Chesterfield Royal Hospital
• Northampton General Hospital
• Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals
• East Lancashire Hospitals
• Warrington and Halton Hospitals
• Hampshire Hospitals
• The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals
• Torbay and South Devon

Providing your feedback – Clinical Review of Standards for Cancer

A consultation on the approach recommended by the CRS for cancer services ran from 9 March until 6 April 2022 to capture views from the public, wider stakeholders and other interested organisations.

The proposals set out an approach to modernising and streamlining cancer waiting times standards, refocusing performance measures on the NHS Long Term Plan objective of earlier and faster diagnosis, while continuing to incentivise the best clinical care.