The hospital are struggling with Urgent Suspected Cancer referrals in some specialties and we have therefore decided that Urgent Suspected Cancer forms 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 send them in as an urgent referral. Please do not annotate Urgent Suspected Cancer forms 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.

• USC Referral Criteria / Early Diagnosis
• Acute Oncology Nursing Advice Service
• Metastatic Spinal Cord Compression Pathway
• Palliative & End of Life Care
• Rapid Diagnostic Centre - Vague Symptoms Pathway
• Screening
• Survivorship

• Using FIT in Suspected Colorectal Cancer
  • Guidance Notes
  • HNY Flow Diagram

Prostate Cancer

• Management of Prostate Cancer in Primary Care (Before Referral for Secondary Care Assessment)
• Management of Raised PSA in Suspected or Diagnosed Prostate Cancer (Following Secondary Care Review)

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

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