In the latest period for which statistics are available, 98 per cent. of patients started their first treatment within 31 days of being given a cancer diagnosis. Some of those patients will have benefited from the two-week wait, the 62-day standard and the new waiting time commitments in the cancer reform strategy.
I thank my hon. Friend for her response. Does she agree that it is now critical that the Government should proceed to implement the promised guarantee that patients will see a cancer specialist within two weeks? That is what the country expects and wants.
I thank my hon. Friend for making that point, because that is of course the case. We have used this year’s operating framework to ask all primary care trusts to examine GP practice and use of the two-week referral pathway. From 1 April this year, there will be a new right in the NHS constitution for patients to be seen by a cancer specialist within two weeks of urgent GP referral.