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A quarter of cancer patients waiting too long to receive treatment

The pressure on the Danish healthcare system is causing it to move in the wrong direction

Benedicte Vagner

Some 74 percent of cancer patient treatment courses were treated within the timespan designated by the government, according to figures relating to the second quarter of 2022 released by Sundhedsdatastyrelsen.

This is some way short of the government’s goal of 90 percent – a target the country has never hit before.

Not only is it seven percentage points beneath the figures for the first quarter, but the lowest since cancer-related data started being collected in 2013.

Lacks the resources
The healthcare system lacks the resources to improve, according to Jesper Fisker, the administrative director of Kræftens Bekæmpelse.

As cancer requires immediate treatment, the lack of treatement and increased waiting times can negatively affect prognoses and survival rates.

Numbers worsening
Worst hit are breast cancer patients in the capital region of Denmark, where only 24 percent are treated within the timespan designated by the government.

“What is happening now is that we are, unfortunately, moving in the wrong direction,” added Fisker.

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