THE trust responsible for delivering hospital services in south Cumbria is failing to meet targets on bowel cancer screening.

Figures released by NHS England have been raised as a matter of concern by the charity Bowel Cancer UK.

Guidelines state fewer than one per cent of people waiting for tests that could diagnose bowel cancer should wait for more than six weeks.

But the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust - which runs Furness General - has a figure of 2.5 per cent for colonoscopy procedures.

Asha Kaur, head of policy and campaigns at Bowel Cancer UK, said: “These waiting time figures present a worrying picture for patients and demonstrate the urgent need for the government to make addressing this crisis a national priority.

"If hospitals are expected to meet waiting time targets then they must be given the resources and capacity to enable them to meet these standards.

“Rather than rhetoric, what we need is a comprehensive action plan to finally deal with this long-standing crisis in diagnostic services for bowel cancer. Simply ignoring it won’t make it go away.”

The waiting times published by NHS England last week are further evidence that demand for diagnostic tests are outstripping capacity, the charity claims.

A colonoscopy involves a camera on a thin, flexible cable being inserted through the bottom to look at different parts of the bowel. The test is known as an endoscopy procedures.

Bowel cancer is the second biggest cancer killer but it is treatable and curable, especially if diagnosed early.

More than nine in 10 will survive for five years or more if they are diagnosed at the first stage but only 15 per cent actually are.

Jacqueline Pickles, deputy chief operating officer at, University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, said: “In the 2016/17 financial year 2.5 per cent of patients waiting for tests that could diagnose bowel cancer waited longer than the recommended six week target.

"Despite this being low compared to other NHS organisations the trust is committed to reducing this further.

“In April 2015 UHMBT improved bowel cancer breach rates by implementing the Direct to Test Pathway, which means patients can be referred from their general practitioner straight to the hospital for screening. This helped the trust achieve the low breach percentage.

“All patients are monitored to ensure that they receive a timely appointment. However fluctuations in the numbers of patients presenting for testing, and a small number of patients asking to postpone their appointments have an impact on achieving the target.”