MORE than a quarter of cancer patients at the trust which runs Colchester Hospital had to wait more than two months for treatment, new figures have revealed.

Figures from NHS England showed that 74 per cent of people who received an urgent referral from their GP to the East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT) began treatment within 62 days.

However, it means 703 patients waited longer than two months for treatment and the trust fell far below the 85per cent target introduced a decade ago.

The figures include both Colchester and Ipswich Hospitals which are run by the trust.

Data comes from the 2019/20 financial year, and includes the start of the coronavirus outbreak.

However, March, when the Covid-19 pandemic first took hold in the UK, was the best month of performance for the trust with 83per cent of patients being seen within two months.

Nationally, just 77per cent of patients in England received cancer treatment within two months of an urgent referral in 2019-20 – the lowest rate on record.

Neill Moloney, ESNEFT deputy chief executive, said: “We are absolutely committed to improving our cancer performance and in March we treated the third highest number of cancer patients in England at our trust – just as the impact of the coronavirus outbreak started to be felt.

“We have made progress over the past year and are seeing more cancer patients than ever before, but we are sorry we are not yet meeting all of the national access standards for cancer care.

“Our teams are working hard on making improvements and we will continue to work closely with all organisations involved in local cancer care to support our patients.”