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How we do it: Head and neck cancer waiting times
Author(s) -
Tandon S.,
Machin D.,
Jones T.M.,
Lancaster J.,
Roland N.J.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
clinical otolaryngology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.914
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1749-4486
pISSN - 1749-4478
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2273.2005.00997.x
Subject(s) - medicine , referral , staffing , audit , cancer , head and neck cancer , head and neck , general surgery , radiation therapy , surgery , nursing , management , economics
Keypoints After instigation of rapid access referrals from GPs and the Calman‐Hine 2‐week rule, the times taken from initial presentation to the GP, until the start of definitive treatment for patients with head and neck cancer managed was audited and compared with national guidelines. • An improvement in time from GP referral to first outpatient clinic (2.1 weeks), time to fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC; 2.9 days), time to endoscopic examination (2.3 weeks) and to staging scans (3.3 weeks) was seen, these fell just outside the standards set. Time to histological report was within the standards set (0.4 weeks). • As a result of the improvement in preoperative work up of cancer patients, there has been an increased delay to primary surgery (7.7 weeks) and a continued delay to primary radiotherapy (10.2 weeks). • Delays because of poor patient education about head and neck cancer are still very apparent and need to be addressed, as well as further improvement in GP education about early referral to ENT services. • The shortfalls seen need to be addressed by an increase in infrastructure as well as medical and paramedical staffing to ensure patients are managed within given time standards. Although patient throughput can be enhanced by improvements in system efficiency, it is unlikely that targets will be met consistently without an increase in resources to fund greater capacity and more personnel.