Sufferers may skip their GP for most cancers checks, says Barclay
P
atients with most cancers signs may doubtlessly skip a GP appointment and as an alternative go straight for a scan, the Health Secretary has instructed.
The suggestion, from an interview with Steve Barclay in The Daily Telegraph newspaper, is the most recent proposal floated amid ongoing stress on the well being service.
It comes as ministers face an uphill wrestle to chop ready lists, with 7.6 million individuals ready to start out therapy on the finish of June.
It follows experiences this week that targets to make sure sufferers see a specialist inside two weeks of being urgently referred by their GP for suspected most cancers could possibly be scrapped.
Where there are bottlenecks within the system of referral from the GP, is there scope to go direct to the related diagnostic take a look at or to the clinician?
That got here after the most recent knowledge revealed most cancers wait instances in England stay effectively beneath targets set by the Government and NHS.
According to The Telegraph, proposals being labored on within the Department of Health would see some sufferers skipping a go to to a GP and as an alternative going straight to an NHS diagnostic centre.
“We are very much looking at those patient pathways,” Mr Barclay informed the paper.
“Where there are bottlenecks in the system of referral from the GP, is there scope to go direct to the relevant diagnostic test or to the clinician?
“Breast cancer is a good example because almost always the GP refers on… and therefore there’s an opportunity to design out bottlenecks in the system.”
This shouldn’t be the primary time such a proposal has been floated, however the prospect of bypassing GPs is more likely to increase questions on feasibility.
Community diagnostic centres have grow to be a key plank within the Government’s plan to chop ready lists, a key pledge for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Mr Barclay additionally mentioned he had commissioned former M&S boss Steve Rowe to take a look at how the Department of Health can discover effectivity financial savings.