A LEADING cancer charity has reiterated calls for “urgent action” to be taken over waiting times, with one in two patients still facing treatment delays.

Macmillan Cancer Support has warned that Wales’ cancer care system is failing patients, as performance against targets falls to the second lowest on record.

Welsh Government data published for June shows that only 53.4 per cent of people with cancer started their treatment on time – leaving over 870 people to face delays in their treatment during just one month alone.

The figure was down from the previous month, and is the second lowest on record.

Macmillan is also warning that people with certain forms of cancer are not receiving equal access to timely treatment, and that cancer treatment waiting times performance for those cancers remains “worryingly low”.

The latest data shows that as few as one in four people with gynaecological cancer received their treatment on time during June – with nearly three quarters of people affected being left to face anxious delays in their care.

Glenn Page, Macmillan policy manager for Wales said the “figures reveal a system that is failing people diagnosed with cancer, and the Welsh Government must take urgent action to ensure people can get the treatment and support they need without delay.”

“Timely treatment is needed to ensure people have the best possible outcomes,” he said.

“Right now, only 53 per cent of people with cancer – only one in two - are being offered that chance in Wales.

“Month after month, people being left in limbo as they wait for vital cancer tests and treatment will be asking “what are we waiting for?”

“We are calling on the Welsh Government to take urgent action now to reduce waiting times.”

Welsh Conservative Shadow Health Minister and Montgomeryshire MS Russell George said: “It is completely inexcusable that in their lifetime, one in two people will be diagnosed with cancer, yet in Wales, just 53.4 per cent of patients are being seen within the 62-day maximum wait target.”

Health and Social Services Minister Eluned Morgan said: “For cancer services 132 more people started their first definitive treatment, 23 more within target, than the same month last year.

“There was also a 14 per cent increase in the number told they don’t have cancer (14,575) compared with June 2022.”

The new Suspected Cancer Pathway targets were adopted by the Welsh Government in 2020.

It set the target that at least 75 per cent of patients should start treatment within 62 days of first being suspected of cancer.

The Welsh Government’s planned care recovery plan also established a new target of treating 80 per cent of people within a 62-day target by 2026.