The Doctor Will See You Now....

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Some cancers are more urgent than others, and other cancers are not urgent at all. In Scotland the latter are called "non-urgent" cancers.

In total, some 27,000 patients are diagnosed with cancer in Scotland ever year. But only 9,500 of them were classified as "urgent" by GPs. Once the non-urgent cases are included, hospital by hospital analysis of all cancer cases shows that:

• Between January and April last year, head and neck cancer patients at Hairmyres hospital in East Kilbride waited an average of 112 days after GP referral before treatment.

• Average waits at Falkirk and District Royal for gastrointestinal cancer between April and June was 118 days.

• In the same quarter, patients at Stobhill in Glasgow suffering from urological cancer waited an average of 105 days.

The figures also show that lengthy waits are still common for cancers such as breast cancer, where speedy treatment is needed. Of 28 hospitals treating women with breast cancer in 2008's last quarter, 14 had an average wait of over 40 days.

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