Median and 95th percentile of the number of days waited from receipt of an urgent referral with suspicion of cancer to first cancer treatment.

Median and 95th percentile of the number of days from referral to treatment, after any adjustment. Referral to Treatment = Total number of days from referral to treatment MINUS Total waiting times adjustment. Waiting times adjustment is the cumulative number of days by which the waiting times pathway can be adjusted before/after the decision to treat. This can equal 0.

This is a continuous variable measure. The target population is urgent referrals with suspicion of cancer who receive their first cancer treatment (inferred).

Patients who had a clinically complex pathway, who died before treatment or refused treatment.

Responsibility for collating and submitting the data to ISD lies with the NHS Board that received the patient's initial referral to secondary care. Data is collected by cancer trackers and administrative staff (including medical secretaries) across NHS Scotland, and are based on locally available information drawn from sources such as patient administrative systems, laboratory systems, and medical records across the country; which are then recorded onto the NHS Boards' Tracking systems.

Published on the Public Health Scotland website report: Cancer Waiting Times in NHS Scotland.

webarchive.nrscotland.gov.uk/20231129155341/https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Waiting-Times/Cancer/Guidance/_docs/CWT%20Data%20and%20Definitions%20Manual%20v5.4.pdf webarchive.nrscotland.gov.uk/20231129155341/https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Waiting-Times/Cancer/ www.publichealthscotland.scot/media/20456/2023-06-27-cwt-guidance-note.pdf

Data reported on: www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/cancer-waiting-times/cancer-waiting-times-1-january-to-31-march-2023/