One-stop shop for cancer diagnosis
NHS centres aim to boost UK’s poor survival rates
A SERIES of ‘ one- stop shops’ to drastically speed up cancer diagnosis and treatment is being trialled by the NHS.
The centres could help slash diagnosis time for a patient with suspected cancer to just two weeks.
GPs, hospital doctors, radiologists and other healthcare professionals can refer patients to these centres if they suspect cancer.
Patients will then be able to undergo most of the necessary tests at one appointment – meaning some may even get diagnosed or given the all-clear within a day.
While the centres will speed up cancer diagnosis, patients will only be seen there after being referred by their GP. Potential delays at the very start of treatment – such as being unable to get a GP appointment quickly – will be unaffected.
But it is hoped the pilot scheme, which is initially running at ten hospitals across the UK, will cut waiting times for treatments and improve survival rates.
Dr Rosie Loftus, joint chief medical officer at Macmillan cancer Support, said the news was ‘an important step in improving early diagnosis in England’. The UK has some of the worst survival rates for cancer in the world, with thousands of patients dying prematurely as a result.
Studies suggest 10,000 deaths could be prevented each year if the UK merely hit the European average. While British cancer survival has improved slightly over the past 20 years, the country is being left behind by huge advances in other countries.
Earlier this year, the largest ever study of cancer survival put the UK towards the bottom of global league tables for several common cancers, including ovarian and pancreatic. It showed Britain is left trailing by developing nations such as Jordan, Puerto Rico, Algeria and Ecuador. Another found that a string of national cancer strategies have done little to close the gap – but health bosses hope that the new centres will turn the tide.
They are located at hospitals including London’s Royal Free, St James’s University Hospital in Leeds, North Middlesex University Hospital and churchill Hospital in Oxford.
They are designed to diagnose cancer in patients showing complex symptoms rather than obvi- ous ‘ alarm symptoms’. Often patients who go to see their GP with complaints such as unexplained weight loss, poor appetite or abdominal pain are sent for referrals and tests before finding the cause. This can then lead to a delay in treatment.
The centres are part of the NHS’s plan to introduce a 28-day cancer diagnosis standard by 2020.
Those diagnosed with cancer can be referred on to specialists, while those with benign conditions are treated elsewhere.
cally Palmer, national director for cancer at NHS England, said: ‘Early diagnosis is crucial to saving lives, which is why we are driving forward plans to revolutionise our approach to cancer in this country. These new one- stop shops represent a real step change in the way people with unclear symptoms are identified, diagnosed and treated.’
Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairman of the Royal college of GPs, said: ‘Any initiative that improves diagnosis of cancer should be welcomed, and it is great to see investment being put into initiatives.
‘Several cancers start with very vague, non-specific symptoms and these clinics will help diagnose such cases earlier, hopefully improving outcomes, and freeing up valuable appointments with hard-stretched GPs.’
‘Early diagnosis is crucial’