Update on 2 Week Wait Referrals
News
We know that it can be tricky balancing the conversation with a patient when you feel there is a possibility of cancer and need to make an urgent referral and reducing alarm and anxiety for the patient.
However, we know that this time of year patient often defer appointments until after the holiday period and so, as we approach the Christmas period it may be useful to know that the hospital teams will be running a full schedule of 2ww clinics every day except for Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.
As ever, and probably more so during the Christmas period, please can you make sure when making a 2ww referral that the patient is ‘ready willing and able’ to attend and really aware that this is to ‘rule out cancer’ and it is extremely important that they prioritise the offer of appointment/investigation.
Once a 2ww referral is received by secondary care they have 14 days to see the patient (and their performance standard is 93%). So if the patient does not understand the importance and chooses to defer until after the holiday period there could be a delay in diagnosis and this also causes difficulties in scheduling appointments in the New Year period.
