Increase in referrals and staff shortages behind 14-day cancer target pressure

48.7% of patients not seen within a fortnight in December

An increase in referrals and staff shortages are behind a fall in the number of cancer patients being seen within 14 days of referral.

Manx Care says the target was met for 51.3% of patients in December, down from November's figure.

This recovered slightly in January to 60%, while the average wait for a patient was 15.8 days.

Operations Director Oliver Radford says the number of patients being referred has gone up by a fifth compared to this time last year: