Princess Alexandra ranked one of the worst hospitals in the country for treating cancer patients quickly enough
Health / Mon 17th Nov 2025 at 10:14am
PRINCESS Alexandra Hospital (PAH) is one of the worst performing hospitals in the country when it comes to treating cancer patients quickly enough.
PAH is ranked 118th out of 121 trusts when it comes to patients starting treatment within 62 days of an urgent referral.
The government has accepted waits were “too long”, but said it was “investing in the NHS to improve performance”.
Research shows getting treatment quickly is crucial, with every four-week delay reducing patient survival by an average of 10%.
We invited PAH to respond. Anna Jebb, Chief Operating Officer at The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT), said:
“We are focused on improving the experience of our patients by reducing the time it takes to begin cancer treatment.
“To achieve this, we are progressing several initiatives, including enhanced clinical triage for all referrals, expanding our diagnostic and outpatient capacity, and reviewing external pathways for patients who need to be referred to specialist centres. In some services, we are developing a ‘one-stop’ diagnostic model so that patients can have all necessary investigations completed in a single visit.
“Our teams are working hard to meet the very high levels of demand for our services, and we are grateful for the commitment of our people and the support of our system partners.
“We are beginning to see positive progress against the cancer standards, although we recognise there is still more to do.”
Click below for the full article from the BBC.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgjdpqvpj3lo
David Forman
2025-11-17 10:37:47
Anna Jebb, Chief Operating Officer at The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS stated PAH were "expanding our diagnostic and outpatient capacity". The bit she failed to mention is that the Community Diagnostic Centre in Epping, overseen by PAH, is behind schedule and likely to be delivered a year late. Given that the CDC includes two CT and one MRI scanners, I would say that is a much needed addition that is too slow in being delivered.
David Forman
2025-11-17 10:43:01
Of course, we should mention that senior managers fail to value their staff. The result is good people leave to places like Lister Hospital which is now ranked 19th in the hospitals league table. PAH's loss is Lister's gain. I must remind myself to move to Stevenage when I retire.
Adam
2025-11-17 10:56:32
An appalling hospital, its not just cancer it is most things maternity too. Someone who works there will be along soon to blame everyone but themselves. The issue is in the NHS the senior management play musical chairs and move from one trust to the next etc. We should be holding them to account dismissing them for performance if they fail and that should bring about a 5 year ban from working for the state.
Annie
2025-11-17 12:52:24
In January you told my Mother she had COPD, By March she died because turns out it was an aggressive form of lung cancer and NOT COPD as your Hospital told us
Ted
2025-11-17 16:04:20
Why is it one of the worst. It can only be the fault of our goverment
Mr George
2025-11-17 16:47:00
Sorry, but that whole hospital is pretty terrible and has been for years.
Brian
2025-11-17 17:01:55
In harlow it's best to keep super fit.
Anon
2025-11-17 19:22:20
Nothing but praise for the William Day centre when my husband was diagnosed with lung cancer, from nurses to consultant's
Seamus
2025-11-17 21:12:05
I feel it's easy to blame the government of the day. The problem here lays firmly at the chief executives and senior management levels. Firstly in their top heavy management structure with people who would be unemployable in the private sector. They fail time and time again and rarely face any personal consequences or sanctions against obtaining future roles elsewhere in the NHS. We see a huge uptake of staff from overseas which aligns with the rise of compensation claims and payouts and we have a hospital without any joined up thinking. Harlow is expanding at a time that the only figures on the rise at Harlows hospital, are senior managers and chief executives pay. There is a real concern over wether Harlow hospital aids recovery or contributes to a patients demise. This cannot continue and heads need to roll.
Tracey
2025-11-17 21:21:48
I think this is an area where we nearly all agree - It is a disgrace - It is one of the worst hospitals in the country - The staff who have been there for years wouldn't get a job elsewhere and wouldn't survive 2 minutes in a private hospital and it has become a refuge for the worst NHS managers who have failed at other hospitals - The wretched place needs to be taken over by and flushed clean by a proper hospital trust.
Friday
2025-11-17 22:11:59
Was this hospital ever designed for the amount of intake that has been lumped on it over the past 2 decades?
Peter
2025-11-18 01:03:34
In between some of the nonsence written there lies some valid points, Friday makes the point about numbers the hospital was built for 60k people. Now we cover many times that.some days we get over run.i work in the hospital and see many great people who do an amazing job. .the ladies who are unlucky to get breast cancer get amazing treatment, because of our team from. Epping.the william day unit also give great care and compassion to cancer patients..the hospital will always strive to do better, but not everyone will be happy that's just the way it is..also the doctors surgeries have to see more people to help pah out... factor in another 4k houses being built at gildon park, that's another 13 odd thousand people..it's getting so hard to keep everyone happy..I get a lot of people saying they have been impressed, when coming for operation in our theatre.x
Nancy
2025-11-18 05:16:25
Peter - I was booked in as the first appointment of the day with your team from Epping. I sat there and saw teams of junior doctors go into the consultants room and listened to laughter from inside and eventually I looked at social media and saw that the consultant had posted thanks about a charity event the night before. I showed the post to the NURSE who went in and out with tea and notes - I got seen by a junior and I was lucky as the results were negative - All this time the waiting room was filling with very ill people - Not great people doing an amazing job, but contempt for those you serve.
Terry
2025-11-18 05:49:52
Compassion = “If only we’d caught it earlier Mr Jones - But still, you have to remember that in the 1960’s this hospital was originally only built for 60K, so what can you expect.”
David Carter
2025-11-18 09:54:06
In June i was given an appointment at the Orthopaedics dept for the 16th December a long wait but nothing i could do about it. at the end of October i received an E Mail cancelling this and giving me a new appointment for 15th May 2026. First of all this is not the service i have been paying for many years. other countries have far better health care than us. also P A H has also way too many people to deal with its not fit for purpose
Colleen Morrison
2025-11-18 19:00:06
It is totally unacceptable that PAH's cancer care is so disgracefully poor. PAH clearly has major issues of under capacity and excessive demand which must be resolved. It should be stated, however, that almost every hospital trust in England is failing to meet key waiting time targets for cancer care. Just three trusts out of 121 are treating cancer patients quickly enough - within 62 days - and the responsibility for this the minister, Wes Streeting's and the government's flawed and chaotic management of the NHS.
Colleen Morrison
2025-11-18 19:27:29
After Wes Streeting, was diagnosed with kidney cancer, in May 2021, he saw a consultant, was operated on and was given treatment for this by July 2021, when he declared cancer free. It is shameful that this is unlikely to happen for members of the public diagnosed with cancer now. Under capacity and excessive demand are national and ministerial issues, so what is Streeting, doing about the current appalling, life endangering waits for cancer care - aside from cracking a stream of jokes to distract from the issues? A recent damning report by the Institute for Government accuses Streeting of taking a “chaotic and incoherent approach” to reforming the NHS in England, which makes it unlikely the government will hit its own targets. He's also criticised for the way he handled the abolition of NHS England and his lack of action to stem the exodus of senior GPs. My Harlow GP surgery has a routine 2 to 3 week wait for appointments.
Colleen Morrison
2025-11-18 19:48:22
Meanwhile, Streeting seems too over occupied with briefing against the Prime Minister and posing for the PM's job to do his own vitally important job properly: the job that he's paid £159,000 a year, plus expenses, plus a free chauffeured car, plus an elitist, gold plated, half salary pension for. Now it has emerged that Streeting has been accepting a number of cash freebies from multi-millionaires, including Francesca Sainsbury, daughter of Lord Sainsbury - who established Labour supporting 'Progress' which Streeting worked for prior to become an MP. Streeting has also been criticised for accepting four free tickets with hospitality to the grossly expensive Taylor Swift concert. Confronted by a journalist about this, Streeting laughed, then joked, "I've been outed as a Swiftie." Further pressed about the tax free freebies he's been accepting, Sweeting falls back on the same old Labour non-defence used by Starmer, Rayner, Reeves etc, that as long as these are transparent and recorded in an MP's register of Interests it's all okay. "I think the important thing is transparency and accountability and that there are no conflicts of interest", Streeting claimed. How are the public to know that there are no conflicts of interest, Mr Streeting?
Colleen Morrison
2025-11-18 20:01:19
All politicians must live by the stringent code of conduct known as the Nolan Principles. The first Nolan principle is: Selflessness: act solely in terms of the public interest. The second principle is: Integrity: Holders of public office must avoid placing themselves under any obligation to people or organisations that might try inappropriately to influence them in their work. They should not act or take decisions to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family, or their friends. From where I'm sitting, politicians who accept freebies from multi-millionaire donors are in breach of the Nolan Principles. MPs don't even pay tax on these freebie benefits in kind because the Prime Minister stated that they don't need to pay tax on these.
Colleen Morrison
2025-11-18 22:44:46
I missed the last part of the name of Lord Sainsbury's daughter: she's Francesca Sainsbury Perrin. Her last donation to Wes Streeting is reported to have been £50,000 donated in September this year. Francesca and her father are reported to have donated millions of pounds to the Labour Party.
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