Gwent cancer treatment misses target as 308 patients wait beyond 62 days

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board reported 308 patients waiting more than 62 days on its cancer pathway in papers for its 28 September meeting. It also reported 89 waiting more than 104 days. Those are overlapping waiting-time thresholds, so the figures should not be added together as if they describe 397 different people. The papers say both backlogs are reducing after increases during 2025.

The August treatment measure

In August 2026, 63.7% of patients started treatment within the 62-day Single Cancer Pathway standard, against the national target of 75%. The clock runs from the point cancer is first suspected to first definitive treatment. That leaves performance 11.3 percentage points below target. The board says compliance ranged between 58% and 66% from April 2025 to August 2026, remaining below the standard throughout that period. The separate 28-day diagnostic measure was 76%, above the board’s 75% benchmark. Meeting that diagnostic benchmark does not mean the end-to-end treatment target was met.

Demand and the next plan

Suspected-cancer referrals rose from 29,896 in 2019/20 to 40,347 in 2025/26, an increase the board rounds to 35%. First treatments rose from 3,704 to 4,635, a rounded increase of 25%. Referrals are not a count of confirmed cancer diagnoses. The board identifies differences between tumour pathways, diagnostic complexity, surgical capacity and dependence on regional services as continuing pressures. Its next Gwent Cancer Plan will run to 2035. The practical test is whether the falling backlog is followed by sustained improvement in the time patients wait to begin treatment. These papers show some progress, but they do not establish that the treatment standard has been reached.