On 9 November 2023 the South Eastern Health and Social Care (HSC) Trust launched ‘encompass’ - a new electronic patient record system. The system also went live in Belfast HSC Trust on 6 June 2024 and in Northern HSC Trust on 7 November 2024, and its rollout across the other Trusts will continue in 2025. Given the relatively recent transition of Belfast Trust most, although not all, of its data for this quarter, and no validated data for the previous quarter, were available at the time of publication.

Data for South Eastern and Belfast HSC Trusts are not directly comparable with the other Trusts. These figures, sourced from encompass, are considered to be ‘official statistics in development’, which are a subset of Official Statistics in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics. While caution must be exercised when using these figures, they are a meaningful representation of what they measure and are of sufficient quality for publication and use.

Charts and figures in the ‘Breast Cancer Referrals Received’ section do not include Belfast HSC Trust data. This is to allow comparisons to be made for the four other HSC Trusts over previous years and any Northern Ireland level figures only include data for Northern, South Eastern, Southern and Western HSC Trusts.

Key Facts

Target data for the HSC Trusts have been revised due to the ongoing development and evaluation of data sourced from encompass.

Waiting times for first definitive treatment following a decision to treat (31-day target)

• In the quarter ending September 2024, 2,842 patients started their first definitive treatment following a decision to treat. The number of patients starting treatment in all five HSC Trusts increased by 2.5% (69) from the same quarter last year. As validated data for Belfast HSC Trust for Quarter Ending June 2024 were not available at the time of publication, the number of patients starting treatment in the other four Trusts increased by 1.2% (21) since last quarter.
• The percentage of patients starting treatment within 31 days in all five HSC Trusts was 87.9%, the same as the same quarter last year. As validated data for Belfast HSC Trust for Quarter Ending June 2024 were not available at the time of publication, the percentage of patients starting treatment within 31 days in the other four Trusts increased from 90.8% in the previous quarter to 91.4% this quarter.

Waiting times for first definitive treatment following an urgent GP referral for suspect cancer (62-day target)

• In the quarter ending September 2024, 1,383 patients started their first definitive treatment following an urgent GP referral for suspect cancer. The number of patients treated in all five HSC Trusts increased by 2.0% (26) from the same quarter last year. As validated data for Belfast HSC Trust for Quarter Ending June 2024 were not available at the time of publication, the number of patients treated in the other four Trusts increased by 10.8% (97) since last quarter.
• The percentage of patients starting treatment within 62 days in all five HSC Trusts decreased from 34.0% in the same quarter last year compared to 32.9% this quarter. As validated data for Belfast HSC Trust for Quarter Ending June 2024 were not available at the time of publication, the percentage of patients starting treatment within 62 days in the other four Trusts decreased from 35.8% in the previous quarter to 34.1% this quarter.

Patients first seen following an urgent referral for suspect breast cancer (14-day target)

• In the quarter ending September 2024, there were 3,449 patients seen by a breast cancer specialist following an urgent referral for suspect breast cancer. The number of patients seen in all five HSC Trusts increased by 3.8% (126) from the same quarter last year. As validated data for Belfast HSC Trust for Quarter Ending June 2024 were not available at the time of publication, the number of patients seen in the other four Trusts decreased by 8.8% (266) from last quarter.
• The percentage of patients seen within 14 days in all five HSC Trusts decreased from 52.9% in the same quarter last year compared to 30.0% this quarter. As validated data for Belfast HSC Trust for Quarter Ending June 2024 were not available at the time of publication, the percentage of patients seen within 14 days in the other four Trusts increased from 30.7% in the previous quarter to 33.5% this quarter.

The figures which follow do not include the Belfast HSC Trust as validated data were not available for this Trust at the time of publication.

Referrals for suspect breast cancer

• In the quarter ending September 2024, 4,655 referrals were received by HSC Trusts for suspect breast cancer, of which 68.6% (3,194) were classified as urgent.

All statistical publications relating to cancer waiting times are available online at: https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/articles/cancer-waiting-times