Keir Starmer has accused the government of “moving the goalposts” as the number of NHS cancer waiting time targets is expected to be reduced. The government has been consulting on the proposed measures to streamline NHS cancer care, which would replace the nine existing cancer targets with just three. The target of all patients seeing a specialist within two weeks of an urgent referral for cancer tests by the GP is expected to be scrapped. Under a new “faster diagnosis standard”, three-quarters of patients with an urgent referral, breast cancer symptoms or who are picked up through screening, should have cancer ruled out or receive a diagnosis within 28 days. Once diagnosed, patients should receive their first treatment within 62 days from referral or 31 days after the decision to treat. The three targets would replace the nine existing cancer targets, including the two-week wait between a GP referral and first consultant appointment; a one-month wait for care once a decision has been made to offer treatment for cancer such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery; and a two-month wait from the urgent GP referral to a first treatment of cancer. Latest figures show that only 59% of patients started their first cancer treatment within two months of an urgent GP referral, well short of the 85% target. And only 62% of patients were seen within two months of a positive result from a national cancer screening test, compared with the 90% target. When a consultation on the cancer proposals began last year, the NHS highlighted that the current two-week target set no expectation of when patients should receive test results or have a confirmed diagnosis. Downing Street said no changes would be imposed by the government. “This is a clinically led piece of work, recommendations put forward by leading cancer experts, with the support of cancer charities, about how best to help those with cancer,” the prime minister’s official spokesperson said. “So it’s not something that’s going to be imposed by the government.” But Starmer said: “What they’re doing is moving the goalposts, and even where they’re keeping targets, they’re still not hitting them.” Thalie Martini, chief executive of Breast Cancer UK, said that the charity had not been consulted on the changes to cancer targets. “The government does not have a handle on cancer, from prevention to diagnosis and treatment.” Adding cancer to the major conditions strategy, rather than having a standalone cancer strategy, would make matters worse, she added. “Not only are the government failing those with cancer, but by not having a detailed and comprehensive cancer strategy, they are also letting down every future patient.” Prof Pat Price, visiting oncology professor at Imperial College London and co founder of the Catch Up with Cancer Campaign, accused ministers and NHS leaders of “fiddling around” in the middle of an NHS crisis and of watering down the targets. On breast cancer, the target is that 93% of women should be seen in a one-stop clinic in two weeks, but that figure sits now at 74%. “The target we think is only going to be 75% in 28 days, that’s actually worse,” she told the BBC. “Is it really the best that government and senior NHS leaders can do is fiddle around with targets in the middle of this crisis?” The BBC reported that the outcome of the consultation was expected to be announced within days, although implementing the changes would be subject to final approval by the health secretary, Steve Barclay. Dr Tom Roques, vice-president at the Royal College of Radiologists, welcomed the new faster diagnosis standard, but warned that targets were no panacea. “[It] is a far better target than the two-week wait. Measuring the time it takes to get either an all-clear or a cancer diagnosis is much more meaningful both to patients and the NHS than just assessing how long someone waits for their first appointment. “It’s disappointing that we aren’t yet meeting this new target, although it is not surprising, given the extent of the workforce shortfalls we have in cancer. The Faster Diagnosis Standard is a step forward for patients in its current form, and we hope that in time it will be set at a more ambitious level. To make this possible, so that more patients get the timely diagnosis and treatment they deserve, we need to see concerted action from the government to increase cancer capacity.”