Two people waiting more than 100 days for cancer treatment in Shropshire

One lung cancer patient and one person suffering from upper Gastrointestinal tract cancer have been left waiting more than three months for treatment due to delays.

But heath bosses say that the problem is down to outside services which have not been able to meet targets.

It was revealed during a meeting of Telford & Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Group at Meeting Point House yesterday.

During his report, chief officer David Evans said delays by a "tertiary provider" were causing problems.

Mr Evans said he was unable to go into the details of the specific issues surrounding the cases in a public meeting.

But he added: "It is an issue with capacity with a tertiary provider and it is being taken up with that provider."

At Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust in February, six patients were waiting more than six weeks for bowel cancer tests and three were waiting more than 13 weeks.

However, hospital bosses have apologised and said they will hit 100 per cent of their targets in March.

Figures released by NHS England for February 2017 reveal that nearly 2,000 people in England are waiting longer than the six week target set by the Government, but the trust said that in March, it was able to recover its position.

At Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust 1.9 per cent of patients were waiting more than six weeks for a colonoscopy appointment and 1.4 per cent were waiting for a flexible sigmoidoscopy.

A total of 21 hospitals in the midlands and east of England do not meet the NHS standard of less than one percent of patients waiting more than six weeks for tests that could diagnose bowel cancer.