2 week wait/ Fast diagnosis service

Dear Penny2025,

Thank you for contacting Macmillan and welcome to the online community. My name is Denise, and I am one of the Macmillan Cancer information Nurses on the helpline. I can see you have joined other forums too and I hope you find those helpful.

I am sorry to read you are experiencing some worrying times. It must be difficult for you.

The current National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines for suspected cancer pathway for melanoma to have a diagnosis confirmed or ruled out within 28 days of referral. In England this target is called the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS). Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales do not have an FDS.

To start treatment the waiting times in all three parts of the UK are similar. The current targets are no more than 2 months (62 days) wait between the date the hospital receives an urgent suspect cancer referral and start of treatment or no more than 31 days wait between the meeting at which you and your doctor agree the treatment plan and start of the treatment. To read more about cancer waiting times please click here.

I understand your concerns are about not given and appointment to see a specialist nor a contact number. You can try to contact your hospital’s switchboard and ask if you can speak to the Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) working in Plastics. If the hospital does employ a CNS in plastics, the nurse will be able to follow up what happened to the referral from dermatology.

 Alternatively, you can contact the hospital’s Patient Advice and Liaison Service to raise your concerns about the lack of communication and advice regarding who to contact. You can also ask your GP to write a letter to the hospital and enquire about your appointment.

I hope you find this information helpful. Please do get in touch with us if you have more questions. You can call us free of charge on 0808 808 0000 or you can chat to us or email us. We are here every day from 8am to 8pm.

Best wishes,

Denise

Macmillan Cancer Information Nurse Specialist

Ref: DK/SMc

Hello 

thanks for your reply. In my case it seems that the 28 day target for diagnosis will not be met as this has already passed. I have chased hospital further today and now been given a consultation appt next week, which is 5 weeks after the gp urgent referral. Please can you advise on what I should expect? Would I be right, based on what you have said, to expect to start treatment no later than 3.5 weeks after this? Which seems unlikely as I’ve not even had a biopsy. No one has told me that the dermatologist suspected melanoma, have read it on my app. Which is thoroughly disappointing 

Dear Penny2025

My name is Rae and I am one of Denise’s colleagues here on the support line. 

It can be the case that targets for diagnosis can be missed.  There are general figures (not skin cancer specific) showing that 73.4% of the 28 day Faster Diagnosis target people were told if they had cancer, or if cancer was definitively excluded within 28 days.  This figure drops when they look at the 62 day target, 67.3% of people began first definitive treatment of cancer with 62 days of an urgent suspected cancer referral.  These figures are for May 2025.  There is a slight decline from previous months, indicating an ongoing pressure on NHS Cancer Services.  Denise has already given you the Patient and Advice Service link.  There is also information on Complaints in the NHS.

It can be very frustrating when waiting for investigations and results.  It is a time when people can feel most anxious.  This information about anxiety is written for people who have received a diagnosis, but the information about how to manage stress is relevant.  You are welcome to chat to our nurses if talking about it would help. 

Best wishes

Rae, Cancer Information Nurse Specialist

You can also speak with the Macmillan Support Line team of experts. Phone free on 0808 808 0000 (7 days a week, 8am-8pm) or send us an email.

Ref/RH/AT