CANCER patients are waiting too long for their treatment to start at Staffordshire's biggest hospital.

The Government wants at least 95 per cent of cancer patients to have started their treatment within two months of diagnosis.

But only 94 per cent of patients were treated within that 62-day target at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire between April and November.

It meant 44 of the 753 cancer patients did not start radiotherapy or chemotherapy treatment or have surgery within target.

Just over 6,000 people – a 10 per cent increase – had been referred to the hospital by GPs with suspected cancer over the same period.

NHS North Staffordshire is unhappy about the delays, which dropped to 88 per cent in November, and partly blames them on staff shortages.

Now the problem threatens to join two other failings – marathon waits in A & E and high numbers of blocked beds – in jeopardising the hospital's annual performance rating from the Healthcare Commission. The hospital does, however, hit its Government target for seeing all patients within two weeks of being referred by their GP.

Andrew Lee, NHS North Staffordshire's interim director of quality and performance, said: "The University Hospital is under considerable pressure from factors including increased referral rates and gaps in some key staff areas.

"These have had the most impact on the diagnostic phase, creating increasing delays and breaches of the existing access targets and resulting in patients waiting longer to be treated.

"It is now possible they will not achieve the currently required performance standards. This is being pursued, with the outcome to be reported to directors this month with an update to the board in March."

The hospital treats 15,000 cancer patients at a time and is opening a new oncology centre this summer as part of the £400 million superhospital re-development. It recently appointed six new consultants.

The latest criticism comes a year after a peer review led by Birmingham University resulted in the hospital drawing up a list of 30 improvements.

A hospital spokesman said: "The new oncology unit will enable us to deliver more state-of-the-art treatment and we expect it to be a big attraction when we recruit clinical and technical staff.

"We are the biggest hospital in the Greater Midlands cancer network area and treat greater numbers than any of the other hospitals. As a specialist centre, we also take complex cases other hospitals cannot tackle and offer some leading edge treatments not available elsewhere."

Dr Paul Golik, secretary of North Staffordshire Local Medical Committee, stressed the importance of treating the disease as soon as possible.

But he added: "A cancer diagnosis is so devastating that some patients may value a bit of a gap in their rollercoaster ride as they get thrown into treatment."

More than 3,000 North Staffordshire people a year die from cancer – well above the national average.