CANCER patients in the York and Selby area should soon have to wait no longer than two months to start treatment.

York Hospital bosses are taking the lead in a national project to streamline cancer services and meet challenging waiting time targets by June.

Other trusts will have until December to improve, but York and 27 others have been chosen to set the standard.

The National Cancer Waits Project will help the trust identify bottlenecks in cancer services and improve access to tests and treatments.

Lung, colorectal and urinary cancer services will be specifically targeted, alongside breast and gynaecological cancers.

Under the project, patients should wait no longer than two months between being referred by their GP and starting treatment and no more than 31 days between diagnosis and treatment.

Elaine Jeffers, cancer services manager, said staff would look at ways the services were run to see where improvements could be made.

Unnecessary appointments would be cut out so tests could be conducted quicker and consultants would have more information by the time they saw patients. "It's good for patients and it's good for us because it's allowed us to really focus on the issues," she said.

"By the time they see the consultant they will have a lot more information about their condition and can work out what's best for the patient. We perform reasonably well within the 31-day target and in some specialities we're already meeting that target.

"Regarding the two-months target, from the moment a patient is referred from a GP with an urgent referral, to actually starting treatment, including all the consultation and diagnostic stages, is quite challenging and we have some work to do but we're not hugely far away. It's about tweaking what we already do."

Elaine said the service was about choices and if things were moving too quickly for a patient, they would not have to stick to the two month target.

York could be selected to feedback their experiences to other trusts and help them meet the targets.

Mike Proctor, director of nursing, said the project was "great news".

He said: "Cancer waiting times are a huge issue for people and this project should make a massive difference."

Last July, about 30 per cent of patients were waiting than two months before starting treatment. Earlier this year the figure reduced to around ten per cent.

Updated: 09:37 Saturday, April 30, 2005