USC Referral Criteria
All referrals for Urgent Suspected Cancer should be made via the RSS using the Gateway referral system
If administrative or clinical staff require Gateway training please contact the RSS team - hnyicb-voy.rsservice@nhs.net
The hospital are struggling with Urgent Suspected Cancer referrals in some specialties and we have therefore decided that Urgent Suspect Cancer guidance should be updated to have this message on them:
Referrers: If your patient does not meet any of the NICE defined Urgent Suspected Cancer criteria please liaise (by phone or Advice and Guidance) with a specialist or submit as a standard urgent referral. Please do not annotate USC referrals with your own criteria.
The criteria are chosen regionally by specialists and GPs to help optimise the early diagnosis of cancer. Varying the criteria risks overwhelming clinics and preventing patients who are more likely to have cancer being seen within two weeks.
The RSS team have been asked not to accept annotated Urgent Suspected Cancer forms and to ask referrers to follow this guidance.
We have created a form for each cancer site for use by all practices in Vale of York CCG. This CCG based form should be used for all referrals, regardless of where the patient chooses to be referred to. Please see this short video which is an introduction to the new process.
From July 2021, chest x-ray no longer required as part of RDC referral work up.
Please refer to Gateway for additional referral criteria.
*Please refer to the CCG policy on attaching photographs on referrals here.
There are some suspected cancers which do not have a referral form. Details on how to refer these cases is provided below:
Childhood Cancer
Immediately contact the Paediatric Team on call if you suspect that a child has cancer. Click here for NICE guidance for common childhood cancers
Suspected Brain / CNS Cancer Guidance
There is no 2WW Brain/ CNS Cancer Service in York. The nearest service providers are Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (0113 2432 799) or Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trusts (01482 875 875).
1. For patients with the following symptoms:
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Subacute, progressive focal neurological deficit
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Unexplained cognitive impairment or behavioural disturbances or changes in personality
Phone the on-call duty radiologist to consider an urgent direct access MRI scan of the brain (to be performed within 2 weeks), or CT scan if MRI is contraindicated.
2. For patients with the following symptoms:
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New onset seizure(s)
- Headache (recent onset) with features of raised intracranial pressure (including vomiting, drowsiness, loss of consciousness, change of personality or memory)
Consider acute admission for investigations
3. For patients where imaging has shown the following:
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Abnormal MRI/CT showing suspected tumour of brain or CNS
Phone the on-call neurosurgical registrar on the same day of receipt of result
The nearest service providers are Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (0113 2432 799) or Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trusts (01482 875 875).
Suspected Sarcoma-soft Tissue
Ultrasound or MRI suggests soft tissue sarcoma- these will automatically be referred by the Radiology Dept to the Soft Tissue Sarcoma MDT in Leeds. Click here for further information.
Suspected Sarcoma-Bone
X-ray or other imaging suggests bone sarcoma. These patients will automatically be referred by the Radiology Dept to the Bone Sarcoma MDT in Birmingham. Click here for further information
