Three in four patients started cancer treatment within 62 days in August, the trust's best ever, up from 54% in Feb 2025. We checked the NHS data.
Cancer patients at the Royal Shrewsbury and Princess Royal hospitals are being diagnosed and treated faster than at any time on record. In August, 76.7% started treatment within 62 days of an urgent referral. Eighteen months earlier it was 54.4%.
The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) announced the figures on 21 October. It called the 62-day result its “best ever”. We checked every figure against NHS England’s own cancer waiting times data, and the trust’s percentages match it exactly.
The three standards, then and now
NHS hospitals in England are measured on three cancer waiting times. Here is how SaTH did in February 2025, when the trust says it was near the bottom of the national tables, and in August 2026, the latest month published.
| Standard | Target | Feb 2025 | Aug 2026 | England, Aug 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diagnosis or all-clear within 28 days of urgent referral | 80% | 65.1% | 87.8% | 78.6% |
| First treatment within 62 days of urgent referral | 85% | 54.4% | 76.7% | 71.9% |
| Treatment within 31 days of the decision to treat | 96% | 93.7% | 95.3% | 92.1% |
The February 2025 figures are NHS England’s final data. The August 2026 figures are provisional, which is normal for the latest month, and can be revised slightly.
In August, that meant:
- 2,939 of 3,348 people urgently referred were told they had cancer, or that it had been ruled out, within four weeks
- 234 of 305 patients started their first treatment within 62 days
- 623 of 654 treatments began within 31 days of the decision to treat
The rankings
The trust says it is now 41st of 122 reporting trusts for the 62-day standard, up from 112th of 122 in February 2025. For the 28-day diagnosis standard it says it is fifth in the country, having been bottom, 119th of 119, in February 2025.
A ranking depends on which trusts you count, and the trust’s release does not say which ones it included. Counting every NHS trust in NHS England’s August file, we placed SaTH 10th of 132 on the 28-day standard and 50th of 133 on the 62-day standard. Either way it is in the top tenth for diagnosis and above the national average on all three measures.
The rise has been steady. On the 62-day standard the trust’s figures for the four months to August 2026 were 73.9%, 74.5%, 75.1% and 76.7%. On the 28-day standard they were 82.5%, 85.8%, 86.6% and 87.8%.
One measure slipped in August
The 31-day standard went the other way. The trust has been well above the 96% target for most of the year: 98.6% in May, 98.0% in June and 98.1% in July. In August it fell to 95.3%, just under the target. The trust’s release does not mention it.
The 62-day figure is also still short of the national standard of 85%. The trust says it is working towards 80% by March 2027 and 85% in the following financial year.
What the trust says changed
The trust puts the improvement down to its cancer services plan, which it says includes:
- shorter waits from referral to the first outpatient appointment
- faster tests and scans, with the time from request to reported result “typically under 10 days”
- more specialist cancer nurses and patient navigators
- extra radiotherapy capacity, including an additional linear accelerator
- more cancer clinical trials, and plans for more chemotherapy capacity in Telford
Ned Hobbs, the trust’s group chief operating officer and deputy chief executive, said: “This is positive news for our patients who are experiencing shorter waits for a diagnosis and the treatment they need.” He added: “We know we have more to do.”
Dr Andrew Cowley, the trust’s clinical lead for cancer services, said waiting for a diagnosis or for treatment to start “is an incredibly worrying and anxious time for patients and their loved ones”.
What it means for you
- If your GP refers you urgently for suspected cancer, nearly nine in ten people at SaTH now hear within four weeks whether they have cancer or not. Nationally it is under eight in ten.
- If you are diagnosed, about three in four patients now start treatment within two months of the referral. One in four still waits longer than that.
- If your wait feels too long, ask the hospital team looking after you, or your GP, where you are on the pathway. The standards above are what the NHS says you should expect.
SaTH runs the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford. The next month’s figures, for September, are due from NHS England in mid-November.
For getting there, our page on parking at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital has the charges that came in today.
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