ArticleHealth expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy2020
Patient experiences of the urgent cancer referral pathway-Can the NHS do better? Semi-structured interviews with patients with upper gastrointestinal cancer.
Article in Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A Bibliometric Analysis and Visualization of Decision Support Systems for Healthcare Referral Strategies.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Urgent, but Not Certain: A Systematic Environmental Scan and Content Analysis of Publicly Available Patient Information for Suspected-Cancer Referral in England.Journal of cancer education : the official journal of the American Association for Cancer Education · 2026Article
- Experience of NHS diagnostic investigation following a multi-cancer early detection (MCED) screening test: qualitative interviews with NHS-Galleri trial participants who had a cancer signal detected.EClinicalMedicine · 2026Article
- Article
- Investigating harms of testing for ovarian cancer - psychological outcomes and cancer conversion rates in women with symptoms of ovarian cancer: A cohort study embedded in the multicentre ROCkeTS prospective diagnostic study.BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology · 2024Article
- Article
- Managing the cancer backlog: a national population-based study of patient mobility, waiting times and 'spare capacity' for cancer surgery.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2023Article
- Co-design to deliver service improvement: What does this mean and how can we do it? A qualitative study with upper gastrointestinal cancer patients and professionals.Cancer reports (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2023Article
- Patient experiences of waiting times in standardised cancer patient pathways in Norway - a qualitative interview study.BMC health services research · 2021Article
- Patient experiences of the urgent cancer referral pathway-Can the NHS do better? Semi-structured interviews with patients with upper gastrointestinal cancer.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTimeliness is viewed as a key feature of health-care quality. Internationally, this is challenging. In England, cancer waiting time targets are currently not being met. For example, between 2015 and 2018 only 71% of patients with upper gastrointestinal (UGI) cancer started treatment within the recommended 62 days of referral.
objectiveWe explored patients' experiences to identify areas for service improvement.
designSemi-structured interviews were conducted. SETTING AND
participantsTwenty patients who were referred through the urgent (two-week) GP referral route and were within six months of receiving first treatment were recruited. DATA ANALYSIS: Data from the interviews were analysed thematically.
resultsFour themes were developed: organization of care; diagnosis; support; and views and expectations of the NHS. Patients described cross-cutting issues such as complex and varied pathways and uncertainty about what would happen next. They felt daunted by the intensity and speed of investigations. They were presented with a recommended course of action rather than options and had little involvement in decision making. They were grateful for care, reluctant to complain and resigned to the status quo. DISCUSSION AND
conclusionsIn order to meet patient needs, the NHS needs to improve communication and streamline pathways. Future cancer pathways also need to be designed to support shared decision making, be truly person-centred and informed by patient experience.
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