Get a cancer referral from a pharmacist
NHS scheme aims to speed up diagnosis after patients report difficulties in seeing family doctors
Pharmacists will refer patients for cancer checks through a new NHS scheme that cuts out the need for GP appointments. People who go to high street pharmacies with symptoms such as a persistent cough, blood in their urine, or difficulty swallowing will be referred directly for scans and tests. Until now, anyone worried about such symptoms required a referral through their GP. It follows concerns about difficulties accessing GP appointments during the pandemic.
PHARMACISTS will refer patients for cancer checks through a new NHS scheme that cuts out the need for GP appointments. Hundreds of pharmacists are expected to take part in the pilot, which will train them to spot signs of cancer and speed up diagnosis times.
People who go to high street pharmacies with symptoms such as a persistent cough, blood in their urine, or difficulty swallowing, will be referred directly for scans and tests.
Until now, anyone worried about such symptoms required a referral through their GP.
It follows concerns about difficulties accessing GP appointments during the pandemic, with some patients still reporting being unable to see their doctor in-person. Around half of complaints about GPS submitted to the Healthwatch England watchdog are about access to family doctors, Sir Robert Francis QC, the group’s chairman, said yesterday.
“They find it difficult to book appointments, they certainly find it difficult to have a face-to-face appointment with a GP when they, the patient, feels that’s what they need,” Sir Robert told MPS on the Commons health and social care committee. About 1.6million people were waiting for key diagnostic tests in March, almost double the 842,000 who were waiting in March 2020, according to the latest official figures. One in 10 of the population, 6.4million patients, were also waiting to start hospital treatment in March.
Some 63.9 per cent of patients waited 62 days to begin their first treatment following an urgent referral of suspected cancer, well below the NHS target of 85 per cent.
Pharmacists will be able to refer patients directly to one of the new community diagnostic centres (CDCS) in football stadiums and shopping centres, which have been carrying out scans, blood tests and other checks in an effort to boost NHS capacity.
Amanda Pritchard, the chief executive of NHS England, will announce the scheme at the NHS ConfedExpo conference in Liverpool today. Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, will also deliver a speech setting out his ambition for how NHS money will be spent.
The NHS will also announce plans to launch “roaming liver trucks”, which will offer on-the-spot scans for those at risk of liver cancer.
Hundreds of people will be offered the scans at GP practices, town centres and food banks. The trucks will follow the successful rollout of mobile lung trucks, which have diagnosed 600 people with lung cancer at an earlier stage.
Separately, the health service will also announce genetic screening for people in Jewish communities at high risk of having a genetic mutation linked to a higher risk of breast, ovarian and prostate cancers.