The scheme, which starts this month, will allow family doctors to send patients with possible symptoms straight for a scan, X-ray or other diagnostic test. “Tens of thousands” of cancer cases could be detected earlier as a result of the new approach, which is intended to help improve Britain’s poor performance in early diagnosis. The aim is to ensure that the 67,000 people a year who have possible but unclear signs of the disease – such as a cough, fatigue or dizziness – and are classed as non-urgent for testing purposes, no longer face long delays before being tested. GPs and practice nurses will now be able to order these tests directly, in a move NHS England chiefs hope will cut average waiting times by around two-thirds, to four weeks, so that patient has its effect much faster. Amanda Pritchard, the agency’s chief executive, will announce the expansion of fast-track testing in a speech on Wednesday to a gathering of health service leaders at the annual NHS provider hospital conference in Liverpool. “By sending patients directly for tests, we can catch and treat more cancers at an early stage, helping us to meet our long-term NHS plan ambitions to diagnose three-quarters of cancers at stages one or two, when it’s easier to be dealt with. “, will say. In future, any GP will be able to refer patients for an ultrasound, MRI, X-ray or a procedure called a sigmoidoscopy – to screen for colon and rectal cancer – either at a hospital or at one of the community diagnostic centers it is setting up NHS England. Currently, only certain surgeries can do this. They will use existing NHS software systems to make referrals to patients who, under guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), are considered a lower priority than those with more worrying signs of cancer, such as a lump or bleeding. Cancer Research UK leaders and GPs have welcomed the change. Kruti Shrotri, head of policy at Cancer Research UK, said: “Cancer that is diagnosed and treated at an early stage is more likely to be treated successfully, so we welcome this announcement from the NHSE which will help speed up diagnosis for patients.” Professor Martin Marshall, president of the Royal College of GPs, said GPs were already doing a good job of referring people with cancer symptoms to a specialist within two weeks and were doing so with 20% more patients than before the outbreak of Covid in the spring. 2020. “However, there will be patients who may not meet the criteria for rapid referral and have vague symptoms that could be cancer but are more likely to be less serious common conditions. In these cases, immediate access to diagnostic services can be helpful,” he said. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. “GPs want to ensure early diagnosis for their patients, so that those with cancer receive appropriate treatment and those who don’t have peace of mind.” The change is “a positive step,” responding to a long-standing demand by doctors to have the right to refer more patients, Marshall added. It remains to be seen how the already strained NHS testing system will cope with the change. NHS England said community diagnostic centers – dozens are open and all 160 are planned – will play a key role. They should be able to deliver 9 million checks a year for a range of conditions by the end of 2024 once they are all up and running, he said. But in recent years, increasing numbers of patients have had to wait a long time to be tested or get a result because demand, partly caused by doctors referring more people for cancer checks, has outstripped NHS capacity to respond. For example, at the end of September around 320,000 patients in England were waiting more than six weeks – the supposed maximum – for a basic diagnostic test. That was 11 times higher than the 30,200 in the same position in September 2019. The NHS has been unable to meet key waiting time targets for diagnostic tests for some time. For example, only 72.6% of people referred for urgent appointments because they have suspected cancer show up within two weeks, although the target is 93%.
