Effect of cancer waiting time standards in the English National Health Service: a threshold analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The English National Health Service has multiple waiting time standards relating to cancer diagnosis and treatment. Targets can have unintended effects, such as prioritisation based on targets instead of clinical need. In this case, a `threshold effect' will appear as a spike in hospitals just meeting the target.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective study of publicly available cancer waiting time data, including a 2-week wait for a specialist appointment, a 31-day decision to first treatment and a 62-day referral to treatment standard that attracted a financial penalty. We examined the performance of hospital trusts against these targets by financial year to look for threshold effects, using Cattaneo et al. manipulation density test.

Results

Trust performan

SUBMITTER: Quinn L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11323589 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature