The NHS hospital trust in Barking and Dagenham is celebrating after hitting cancer treatment waiting time targets for an entire year, something that hasn’t been achieved nationwide in almost 13 years.
Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust (BHRUT), which runs the King George Hospital in Goodmayes and the Queen’s Hospital in Romford, has hit the national 85 per cent referral target consecutively for the past 12 months.
This means that the majority of patients referred to either of the hospitals for cancer treatment in the last 52 weeks have met consultants and started treatment all within 62 days.
The last time this target was hit nationwide was December 2005.
BHRUT has managed this achievement for an entire year, despite having one of the busiest cancer services in the country, treating around 23,000 patients last year.
Dr. Sherif Raouf, divisional director for cancer and clinical services, said: “Everyone at the trust can be very proud of this achievement. I’d like to thank them all for their fantastic effort.
“I’d also like to thank GPs across the community for the part they have played.
“Historically, cancer has been a real challenge for our community, and we have all struggled to provide the quality of service that we would want to. We have all worked really hard to make improvements for our patients.
“There’s a lot more to do, but it’s good to be able to say that we’re moving in the right direction – providing care more quickly, and to a consistently higher standard than ever before.”
There have been significant investments in the trust over the past year, with cutting-edge radiotherapy technology including the installation of the UK’s first Halcyon machine, a new system that delivers state of the art cancer care, which is more accurate, quicker and more comfortable for patients.
