Scottish health minister Andy Kerr has issued a tough warning to NHS boards that not enough is being done to cut cancer waiting times.
His comments came as the latest figures revealed that from April to June this year, waiting times for breast and lung cancer treatment increased.
Although waiting times improved for colorectal, ovarian and melanoma cancers, Mr Kerr said the current end-of-year waiting time target would be tough to meet.
"The figures show that boards had made limited progress between April and June," he said. "But they also show the amount of work boards need to undertake before the end of the year."
The current target sets out that from this month, the maximum wait from urgent referral to treatment for all cancers is two months.
Although 86.3% of breast cancer cases had been meeting the target, the figure has now fallen back to 85.9%. And with lung cancer, the figure slipped from 71.8% to 70.4%.
However in ovarian cancer, cases hitting the target rose from 78.9% to 86%, colorectal cancer from 47.5% to 56.1% and melanomas from 75% to 86.1%.
On average, 74.3% of cancer cases hit the target.
Source
His comments came as the latest figures revealed that from April to June this year, waiting times for breast and lung cancer treatment increased.
Although waiting times improved for colorectal, ovarian and melanoma cancers, Mr Kerr said the current end-of-year waiting time target would be tough to meet.
"The figures show that boards had made limited progress between April and June," he said. "But they also show the amount of work boards need to undertake before the end of the year."
The current target sets out that from this month, the maximum wait from urgent referral to treatment for all cancers is two months.
Although 86.3% of breast cancer cases had been meeting the target, the figure has now fallen back to 85.9%. And with lung cancer, the figure slipped from 71.8% to 70.4%.
However in ovarian cancer, cases hitting the target rose from 78.9% to 86%, colorectal cancer from 47.5% to 56.1% and melanomas from 75% to 86.1%.
On average, 74.3% of cancer cases hit the target.
Source