The number of patients in the West Midlands waiting more than six weeks for tests to confirm whether they have cancer has more than doubled in a year, figures revealed today.

Doctors in the Black Country say they are concerned by the increasing numbers facing anxious waits as they called for urgent action to tackle the problem.

There were some 138 people in the region waiting for longer than six weeks in February last year. But that figure had risen by 134 per cent to 323 in the same month this year, according to the Department of Health.

Around 309,500 people were diagnosed with the disease in the UK in 2008, according to the most up-to-date statistics available from Cancer Research UK.

The news comes days after a report warned that NHS waiting lists had reached a three-year high.

The King’s Fund found that nearly 15 per cent of hospital inpatients in February had been waiting for over 18 weeks for treatment.

In Dudley, health chiefs are taking action after it emerged that one in five cancer patients in the borough had waited more than two months for treatment after urgent referral.

Health chiefs are  blaming “capacity issues” at Wolverhampton’s New Cross for some of the delays.

Figures also show that bowel cancer patients undergoing sugery in the West Midlands face a postcode lottery for treatment, with variations being found in the numbers of patients who do not recover.

The West Midlands has been given an extra £21 million over the next year to provide patients and doctors with better access to cancer drugs.