TARGETS for treating cancer patients at Musgrove Park Hospital have been consistently missed.

Figures from Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group shows the NHS Trust which runs Musgrove, Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, has failed to meet targets for seeing patients within two weeks for a first appointment, and the referring suspected patients for treatment within 62 days.

The government-set target for the '62-day' treatment is for 85 per cent of patients to be seen within the timeframe.

The trust's rates range from 65.4 per cent up to 84.8 per cent from April 2017-March 2018.

Its two-week target is 93 per cent, but has only reached 89.8 per cent of patients seen following an urgent GP referral, and 87.1 per cent for those with breast cancer symptoms.

it has exceeded other targets, including achieving 100 per cent for patients subsequent treatments by anti-cancer drugs within 31 days, and first 'definitive' treatment within 62 days of cancer screening.

Matthew Bryant, chief operating officer at Musgrove Park Hospital, said: “Hospitals in England have six key targets for cancer care. Over the past year we have consistently achieved four of these targets, but have struggled to meet the two-week ‘first appointment’ target and the 62-day ‘referral to treatment’ target for suspected cancer.

“During this time we have also seen a 15 per cent increase in patients being referred with suspected cancer, for three of the commonest tumour sites. Despite this we have increased the proportion of referred patients seen within two weeks during the last three months of 2017/18. For patients diagnosed with a cancer following urgent referral by their GP, almost eight out of ten people received their treatment within 62 days.

“We have plans to increase our diagnostic capacity with new MRI and CT scanners and our teams are working hard on a variety of other actions to try to make sure that diagnosis and subsequent care can be provided to an excellent standard as quickly as possible.”

Dr Jeanette Dickson, vice president of clinical oncology at the Royal College of Radiologists, said while the figures "are a cause for concern" they are a slightly crude measure for judging cancer diagnosis.

She said in an ideal world it would be 100 per cent, but she explained getting from the GP to treatment is a complicated process requiring many different appointments and staff.