The NHS in England risks missing its March 2027 target for starting cancer treatment. In September 2026, 70.7% of patients covered by the standard began treatment within 62 days, against an interim target of 80%. The Guardian reports the risk, citing NHS figures and analysis by Radiotherapy UK.
The figures quoted by the newspaper show a deterioration from August, when the proportion was 71.9%. That is a month-on-month fall, not a definitive verdict on whether the March target will be met. However, the analysis published on 14 November highlights the scale of improvement needed.
What does the 62-day standard mean?
According to The Guardian, the standard covers the time from an urgent referral or a consultant upgrading the priority of a patient’s diagnostic and treatment pathway to the start of treatment. It therefore does not measure only the wait after a diagnosis has been confirmed. The interim target is for 80% of patients covered by the measure to start treatment within that period by March 2027.
Radiotherapy UK’s calculations, as reported by the newspaper, suggest that reaching this level would require around 24,400 patients a month to begin treatment on time, compared with around 21,500 currently. The organisation estimates that approximately 2,850 additional patients would need to start treatment within the standard each month. That calculation assumes patient numbers remain at a similar level, so it is not an unconditional forecast.
Regional differences
The overall figure for England does not capture the full extent of regional differences. In the breakdown quoted by The Guardian, the proportion of patients starting treatment within 62 days was 66.6% in the Midlands and 77.3% in London. Both were below the interim target, but more than 10 percentage points separated them.
Experts quoted by the newspaper link delays to shortages of staff, equipment, and diagnostic and treatment capacity. These are their assessments of the pressures facing England’s public health service.
In its response to The Guardian, the UK health department stressed that performance against all three cancer standards was better than a year earlier, while acknowledging that further improvement was needed. That comparison does not rule out a decline between August and September: it covers a different period.
The figures and target discussed in the analysis apply to England, not the whole of the United Kingdom. For now, they show the gap to the planned level and the risk of missing the deadline — not that the March 2027 outcome is already settled.
