What assessment it has made of whether current cancer waiting times standards provide sufficient monitoring and accountability for women wi…

The cancer waiting times standards were originally monitored against 10 major cancer groups: breast, colorectal, head and neck, lung, lymphoma, ovarian, melanoma, upper gastrointestinal, urological and cervical cancers. These were selected because they accounted for a large proportion of cancer cases and referrals, allowing meaningful performance measurement.Many rarer cancers, such as endometrial cancer, have very small patient numbers, making quarterly reporting less statistically reliable and potentially raising patient confidentiality concerns when results are published by NHS Board and tumour type.However, The Scottish Government commitment to ‘carrying out a clinically led review of latest data and evidence to determine whether there is merit in specific additional or alternative cancer waiting times standards for different types of cancer and cancer treatment’ is underway.A project steering group is being established which will support the review, determining if any amendments to the standards would enhance patient experience and meet the needs of the NHS for the future.Evidence review commissions were shared with key partners in April with the full clinical consensus review expected to conclude with recommendations within 18- 24 months.Monitoring and accountability of standards of care for endometrial cancer is still provided through a number of different means including national set of Quality Performance Indicators (QPIs), developed through the Scottish cancer quality programme and overseen by Healthcare Improvement Scotland, with performance reported by Public Health Scotland. These indicators are used to support continuous quality improvement in cancer services across NHS Scotland.