Three in four English hospitals failing to hit two cancer targets in league tables

Exclusive: Cancer experts declare ‘national emergency’ as hospitals miss targets on diagnosis and starting treatment

Three in four NHS hospital trusts are failing cancer patients, according to the first league tables of their kind, prompting experts to declare a “national emergency”.

Labour published the first league tables to rank hospitals in England since the early 2000s this week. The overall rankings score trusts based on a range of measures including finances and patient safety, as well as how they are bringing down waiting times for operations and in A&E, and improving ambulance response times.