Written question asked by Christopher Fraser (Conservative) on Wednesday, 10 February 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 22 February 2010. It was answered by Ann Keen (Labour) on Monday, 22 February 2010 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Prostate Cancer: Health Services

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the (a) mean and (b) median referral-to-treatment waiting time has been for patients with a diagnosis of prostate cancer (i) in England and (ii) in each NHS trust in each month since January 2007.

Answer: Statistics on average waiting times for cancer patients and average waiting times specifically for prostate cancer treatment are not collected centrally. The cancer waiting time standard of a maximum wait of 62 days from urgent referral for suspected cancer to first cancer treatment was introduced for all cancer patients from December 2005. In the last quarter for which figures are available (July to September 2009) national performance against this standard was 85.7 per cent.

Secondary information