Almost 2,000 Liverpool patients with potential cancer symptoms were not given automatic second appointments by the city’s main NHS trust.
Minutes of the Liverpool University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust have shown that around 1,800 patients on a two-week wait pathway for potential cancer screenings were not offered a second consultation if they did not make an initially scheduled session. National guidance states that a second booking should happen automatically and the Trust conceded in its board minutes that it was not communicated to GPs in some cases.
A two-week referral is a request from a General Practitioner (GP) to ask a hospital for an urgent appointment for a patient as they have symptoms that might indicate cancer. The two-week system was introduced to allow for examinations to be conducted as quickly as possible.
