It all starts with a visit to the GP where a concerned patient arrives with symptoms that might suggest cancer. If there is suspicion of cancer the patient should receive a consultation with an expert within 14 days.
The 2-week urgent referral pathway (from Cancer Research UK website)
The key NHS target is that 93% of patients receiving an urgent referral from their General Practitioner or other health professional, such as a dentist or optometrist, for suspected cancer should wait no longer than 2 weeks to be seen by a specialist.
We all know that the earlier a cancer is found and treated, on the whole, the better it is for the patient, and also for the NHS; potentially resulting in less surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and patients living longer healthier lives.
Unfortunately, not all systems are created equally and it’s within this inequality that opportunities for conversations between you and your NHS customers exist. However, once this gap in care is identified the key to creating sustained conversations will be in the “So what?” How will you help your NHS customers to make change happen?
One way you could address the issue of inequality is by getting your customers together to discuss that patient pathway and simply encourage a conversation that unleashes the fantastic knowledge and innovation already embedded in the NHS.
Thinking back to my MBA days the Japanese would have called this group a ‘quality circle’ - people at the coalface discussing how they could improve the systems and processes they are responsible for.
At SSB Research we call this Benchmarking. Find out more in this video :