Posted on 10/31/2015 3:18:31 PM PDT by originalbuckeye
At least 2,400 cancer patients die needlessly every year because their GP does not refer them to a specialist quickly enough, research has suggested.
The two-week wait means patients should see a specialist for their first appointment within two weeks of seeing a GP with suspected cancer symptoms.
But new research has found a higher number of deaths in cancer patients whose GPs do not regularly use the pathway.
Published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), the study, which was funded by Cancer Research UK and National Institute for Health Research, examined data from 215,284 English cancer patients in 2009.
Death rates increased by 7% for patients whose GP practices used the two-week wait least often compared with practices with a typical referral rate.
Meanwhile, patients from the best performing practices had a 4% lower death rate compared to those with a typical rate.
The data was gathered from 8,049 general practices in England where patients were diagnosed or first treated in 2009 and followed up to 2013.
Lead author Professor Henrik Moller, an epidemiologist at King's College London, said 2,400 excess deaths occurred in the worst performing practices but this figure was likely to be conservative.
He added: " Increasing a GP's cancer awareness and their likelihood of urgently referring cancer patients could help reduce deaths.
"There's a fine line to tread between using the urgent referral route regularly and using it too much - which the NHS isn't equipped to respond to.
"But if GP practices which use the two-week route rarely were to use it more often, this could reduce deaths of cancer patients."
Sara Hiom, Cancer Research UK's director of early diagnosis, said. "This crucial evidence shows that the earlier a cancer patient is diagnosed the better the chances of survival. "Earlier cancer can be treated more effectively with a wider range of treatment options.
"And tumours can progress if there's a delay in time to diagnosis and starting treatment.
"It's never been clearer that reducing late diagnosis saves lives and this research adds to our understanding of what can be done about it."
Dr Rosie Loftus, joint chief medical officer of Macmillan Cancer Support, said: " GPs encounter cancer comparatively rarely, but will see large numbers of patients with a variety of symptoms which may or may not be to do with cancer, making diagnosis more difficult.
"It is therefore critical that GPs have tools available to help them spot cancer at the earliest possible stage."
Professor Sean Duffy, national clinical director for cancer at NHS England, said: "The number of patients referred to hospital for urgent cancer checks is up by over 600,000 over the past five years, and we now want it to go up even more, so as to diagnose suspected cancers earlier."
Referrals in 2014/15 via the pathway were 1.55 million.
A former Brit, now and American, told me about the long waits. He said, (approximately), “If you spot a problem in the UK it may become fatal before you get referred to somebody else. They call me and fly here. I have them in the doctor’s office the next day. They have a diagnosis in a week and they can have it treated here. The choice is stay home ‘for free’ and possibly die or pay the money and have it treated right away in the US.”
“There’s a fine line to tread between using the urgent referral route regularly and using it too much - which the NHS isn’t equipped to respond to...
How does one go about making sure a certain patient doesn’t have cancer TOO OFTEN?
Unless they have a stake in the facility they are sending them to or they are demented and sending them because of a common cold.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
an old school mate emigrated to England about 25 years ago. She constantly raved about England but flies to family in Florida for healthcare, especially eye care for she is slowly losing vision.
The US stinks as far as she is concerned but boy does she use it. I think she uses our welfare system because she is a Brit citizen now but also masquerades as a US citizen, because no one checks.
Not a friend any more
Bernie Sanders pick up the white phone...
Universal heath care is calling...
Don’t get sick...you will never live to be treated...
Also dentists. Dentists are supposed to screen for oral cancers and precancerous conditions with every exam. They don’t. People die. Oral squamous cell carcinoma only has a 50% 5-year survival rate.
Lot’s of UK NHS horror stories.
guns don’t kill people, slow medical systems kill people
When living there in the 80’s, I lost a filling. I went to the dentist to have it replaced and, when they took an x-ray, I asked for an apron. Nope, didn’t have one. And the dentist and hygienist just stood over to the side, in the same room. My tooth hurt for 2 weeks after and I was told it was ‘just settling in’. From what I understand, it is tough to get into the dentist now as there really aren’t very many. I was really glad to return to the USA, if only for the good doctors/dentists.
If you like the care and attention you receive
at your local post office, you’ll feel right
at home with government-dispensed health care.
Yes, there are. I have some nightmare experiences from working in the NHS. But that was a long time ago.
What happens with socialized medicine is that CHOICES ARE MADE. In this case, the choice is whether to provide treatment to ONE cancer victim, or provide pre-natal care to ONE HUNDRED women.
In the United States we do (or at least did) both...and it is NOT CHEAP. In the UK they don’t have that option, so they take the choice of providing care to the group that provides the most votes - and that is NOT the one cancer victim.
This is TOTALLY EXPECTED and happens in every country with socialized medicine.
I constantly read in the DailyMail about NHS horrors. Really stupid things they do.
It’s not always an easy call. I was recently in the hospital. One of the possible causes was a type of blood cancer, that, without treartment, would kill me in a couple of years.
The blood doctor came by and told me rather curtly that I probably had cancer. He ordered some diagnostic tests. The results suggested I didn’t have cancer. The blood doctor was practically dancing when he told me. I wasn’t too unhappy either.
But one of my other doctors said that there was one nagging diagnostic thread hanging loses still suggesting cancer. The blood doctor disagreed but was forced to admit that there was still a 5% chance I had cancer. So, he arranged for me to have a bone marrow biopsy.
This meant my having to go to the hospital, have some light anesthesia administered by one doctor, and a second doctor to do the biopsy, and third, fourth, and fifth doctors at an entirely separate hospital look at the results, to then relay back to my blood doctor and my other doctors that I had no cancer.
In some places, the system might not want to go through the trouble of further testing the 5% possibilities.
Coming soon to a Republik near you!
i’m assuming the outcome was good and very thankful!!
a little suspenseful for a moment!
Good in some ways, not so good in others. It appears that I don’t have cancer, but I do have a chronic disease that has crippled me.
I am 55, and the bad news is that 55 year-old men typically don’t go more than three years in my condition. The good news is that there are many counter examples who have gone decades.
I plan to make the actuaries weep.
I will pray that you make them cry for decades :)
Thank you. I appreciate it.
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