The NHS trust which manages several North London hospitals continues to miss the NHS target for starting cancer treatment within two months of an urgent referral

Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust runs Chase Farm Hospital in Enfield

An NHS trust insists its cancer team is working “incredibly hard” to reduce waiting times for treatment – after new figures showed they are among the longest in England.

Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust – which runs Barnet, Chase Farm and North Mid hospitals, among others – has been ranked 109 out of 121 NHS trusts in England for the time it takes to start cancer treatment following a patient referral.

This is according to a BBC analysis which averaged data from across a whole year, between September 2024 and August 2025.

The NHS target is for 85% of patients to start treatment within 62 days, but at Royal Free London’s hospitals the average figure for the year remained well below this, at 60%.

The latest NHS data for September this year does suggest the number is now improving, however, and that Royal Free London has begun to meet the 75% target for diagnosing or ruling out cancer within 28 days of a referral.

Asked to respond to the latest figures, a Royal Free London spokesperson said: “Our cancer team has worked incredibly hard during the past year to reduce waiting times, and we are now the eighth most improved service in England.

“Royal Free London has one of the biggest cancer services in the country and over the past three years we have seen a 17% increase in the number of referrals. We continue to prioritise the most urgent patients which enables us to achieve some of the best survival outcomes in the UK.”

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