Health Targets

Reducing Cancer Waiting Times

What is the target?

All patients wait less than eight weeks between first specialist assessment and the start of radiation oncology treatment. This excludes patients where the start of radiation treatment is scheduled to permit safe and effective sequencing of chemotherapy (category D).

How well is this target being met at the moment?

Nationally around 95% of cases are treated within the target timeframe of eight weeks. Over recent years some centres have achieved the target for varying periods of time.

How often does the Ministry of Health obtain information from DHBs to check this target is being achieved?

Information on the time between the first specialist assessment and the start of radiation oncology treatment is an Indicator of DHB Performance and is reported on a monthly basis. This information along with other waiting time data can be accessed from the Ministry of Health website.

What needs to be done to meet the target?

Coordinated planning between the Ministry, DHBs and key stakeholder groups will be needed to ensure sufficient staffing capacity, share best practice and support capacity growth across the six cancer centres.

Who is the Ministry of Health champion of this target?

Dr John Childs, Chief Advisor, Cancer Control

Progress on the Target to date - Quarter Three update, July 2008

View a summary on progress towards this Target for Quarters One, Two and Three, from the Ministry of Health Target champion, and more detailed information (eg, graphs and their source data) on the Reducing Cancer Waiting Times Quarterly Reports page.

Specific information on each DHB's progress towards their local targets is provided on their individual pages. You can access them on the Targets by DHB page.

Related information

In this section:
Targets by DHB

In other sections in this website:
Cancer Control section
Cancer Waiting Times Data

Page last updated: 18 July 2008