HOSPITAL chiefs in Bradford say they have bounced back from delays in starting treatment for cancer patients and are now exceeding targets.

Parliament’s watchdog raised the alarm after the proportion of people seeing a specialist within two months of a referral by their GP fell to just 79.9 per cent.

It put Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in breach of the Government’s target for 85 per cent for patients to start treatment within 62 days.

The National Audit Office (NAO) pointed to that failure – by 64 NHS Trusts across England - as worrying evidence that the fight against cancer was going into reverse.

But Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust says those problems are now behind it – pointing to steady improvements over the last few months.

The 62-day target was missed for the July-September period, the most recent statistics published by NHS England, which runs the health service.

But the Bradford Trust said the proportion of patients treated in time rose to 85.3 per cent in October and continued that improvement in November (88.8 per cent) and December (90.1 per cent).

Helen Barker, its chief operating officer, said: “To put the quarter performance into context, we achieved the 62-day target in July and August but failed it in September.

“This was the first time since 2012 that we had failed this specific cancer target.

“All other cancer targets were achieved during this quarter and we have been achieving all of our cancer performance targets since October.”

The most recent statistics showed Airedale NHS Trust performing well, with 95.2 per cent of cancer patients starting treatment within 62 days. New figures will be published next month.

Experts agree there are legitimate reasons for some patients not to be treated within 62 days, including the patient choosing to delay or other health issues requiring more urgent treatment.

For that reason, the national target allows for up to 15 per cent of patients not to be treated within two months by each hospital trust.