GPS say cancer checks ‘scare away’ patients

Doctors are failing to send patients for cancer checks because they don’t wish to alarm them, according to an in-depth study of GPS.

Researchers at Birmingham University found that the fear of “scaring” patients meant cases which should have been urgently referred were not sent to specialists.

The study involved 30 interviews with GPS and NHS practice managers and asked how they took the decision to refer patients with possible signs of bowel cancer.

The research team found there was “evidence of GPS holding back from discussing cancer and avoiding referral in order to prevent patients from becoming scared”.

One said: “You don’t want to scare the patient away, I’d be referring a lot of patients unnecessarily and building up their anxiety as well.”

Another said patients thought to be anxious might be less likely to be referred.

One GP said they tended to wait until they had more concrete evidence of symptoms before making a referral, for fear that their patient would have “a mental breakdown”.

In some cases, GPS’ ignorance of symptoms which required urgent follow-up was to blame. In others, “resource constraints” meant doctors felt under pressure to keep referral rates down.

GPS said they had been warned by NHS managers that “budgets are very stretched and people are referring too much”.

 A “game-changing” drug which was denied to restaurant critic AA Gill on the NHS has now been approved for some patients with his type of cancer.

Gill died, aged 62, last December after revealing he had the “full English” of cancers – specifically lung cancer that had spread to other parts of his body, including the pancreas.

The writer received chemotherapy but could not access the immunotherapy drug nivolumab because the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) had not approved its use by the NHS.

The medication was among those hailed as a “spectacular” new class of drugs which harness the body’s immune system.

In new guidance, Nice has now approved the drug through the Cancer Drugs Fund while more evidence is gathered on its efficacy.