Queen Mary University of London: Cancer Toolkit will support GPs to reduce avoidable delays in cancer diagnosis and care

The Cancer Diagnosis Audit Tool is a reflective tool that enables GPs to look back on recent cancer diagnoses at their practice and identify any avoidable delays. Unlike similar tools, the CEG tool autofills many of the fields using data from the practice’s patient records, making the audit process much simpler. It also displays patient demographics, tumour group and other medical conditions so GPs can identify any inequalities and spot areas for future focus.

Other elements of the toolkit support GPs with new diagnoses and the timely ongoing care of their patients: Patient record searches identify people to be invited for cancer screening, a cancer care review or a support discussion, and identify people whose test results for suspected cancer are due back, so the results can be chased if needed. The CEG Cancer Screening dashboard displays data for bowel, breast and cervical cancer screening, which can be viewed by practice, Primary Care Network, Borough or whole North East London region.

The template ‘CEG Cancer Referral and Safety Netting’ is used by GPs to enter coded information into the patient record and add follow-up dates (for example, noting when test results are due back, or suspected cancer symptoms should be reviewed) so this information can be picked up by the searches.

The toolkit was developed in collaboration with NHS cancer leads in each North East London locality to ensure the elements support both national and local service requirements. The toolkit was launched on 20th October, with a webinar attended by more than 100 GPs, practice managers and practice cancer leads from across the North East London region.