ONE in ten urgent suspected cancer cases is not seen within the Government's two-week target time.

The situation is so serious that leave for some consultants at Wycombe Hospital has been cancelled this summer so they can see more patients with suspected cancer.

Hospital chiefs are worried because the patients are not being seen as quickly as the Government demands.

Government targets state that patients with suspected cancer should see a consultant within two weeks of their doctor urgently requesting an appointment.

A hospital spokesman said people were only having to wait a matter of days extra for their appointment but two weeks meant two weeks and the trust had to meet the target.

At Wednesday's meeting of South Bucks NHS Trust Board, chief executive Roy Darby said: "We are not meeting the cancer targets.

"We are putting on extra clinics and cancelling leave to ensure we meet the standard."

In June, 11 patients with urgent suspected breast cancer did not see a consultant within two weeks almost a third of those referred. And four patients with suspected urological cancer were kept waiting.

This was half of the referrals and is the main problem area for the hospital.

A report to the trust board said the main problem for urological patients was the weight of numbers.

The hospital was recruiting a specialist nurse, who would start in September, and was putting £50,000 into the system.

Finance director of Bucks Health Authority Martin Cutler said there were a number of reasons for the increasing number of breaches of the two-week rule, including the fact that it now included more types of cancer.