The latest NHS data reveals that waiting times for cancer care in England have reached the longest on record, with seven out of nine cancer waiting times targets failing to be met – falling to their worst ever level.

Tens of thousands of patients every month are waiting for extended periods to see a specialist or begin treatment. 152,093 of the 202,816 patients GPs referred to hospital were seen within two weeks, however, another 50,723 – as many as one in four – were not.

Typically, 93% of people suspected by GPs to have cancer should be seen by a specialist within two weeks of their urgent referral; however, January 2022 saw just 75% of these individuals seeing specialists within that time frame. This figure is the lowest proportion on record.

Answering the current crisis faced by the NHS, health secretary Sajid Javid announced the ‘Right to Choose’ in a speech at the Royal College of Physicians. This announcement has already faced criticism from healthcare professionals.

The data also revealed that the number of people waiting for operations including hip replacements has risen to over 6.1 million. This is another record high and almost 24,000 of these patients have been waiting for over two years.

In February 2022 there were 460,000 emergency admissions, which were also up 15.6% on the preceding 12-month period.

GPs will be tasked with preventing ill health under the reforms, with Javid outlining three “radical but logical next steps” in his speech, centring on ‘Prevention, Personalisation and Performance’.

The health secretary emphasised that it is vital “we prevent new people from joining waiting lists, by putting as much effort as we can in keeping people well, before they get ill. The irrefutable logic is to act now,” said Javid, “to stop risks and costs building up in the future”.

Javid outlined his steps in ‘Prevention’, stating this route was “how we build, not just a ‘national hospital service’ but a true ‘National Health Service’”, emphasising the potential of the NHS App in preventative measures and utilising “tools and services like a new digital health check”.

Javid continued: “Primary care and all our GPs, pharmacists and dentists must be at the heart of this new agenda on prevention,” acknowledging that primary care is currently facing too much strain in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic to “be proactive on prevention – even though it wants to”.

The health secretary described his second step, ‘Personalisation’: “how we deliver more personalised care, empower patients and fulfil the promise of the technological leaps we’ve seen throughout the pandemic”.

Javid’s final step, ‘Performance’, was outlined as “how we make sure the NHS can deliver the British people the very best healthcare in the world”.