Multiple GP visits before cancer is diagnosed

The cancer patient experience survey for England found 17 per cent of people eventually diagnosed with cancer visited their GP three or four times before being referred to a specialist.

Another nine per cent saw their GP five or more times while 21 per cent saw their GP twice and 53 per cent had to visit their surgery only once.

Almost nine out of 10 (88 per cent) ranked their overall NHS care as good or excellent when questioned late last year while 91 per cent felt they were listened to by staff.

Overall, 94 per cent said they were always given privacy when they were examined or treated, 91 per cent said they got understandable answers all or most of the time and 88 per cent were given easy-to-follow information about tests.

The survey, of more than 70,000 cancer patients across England, found some hospitals were performing better than others.

Of the 155 NHS trusts covered by the survey, 50 showed very similar results to the previous survey.

Some 31 trusts showed declining scores from the previous year, although the effect was only small.

Meanwhile, 31 trusts showed significant improvements across 10 or more questions compared to the previous year and 40 had smaller improvements.

Sean Duffy, NHS England national clinical director for cancer, said: “Whilst the results of this survey are very encouraging, every patient deserves the best experience they can have of care and that is what we shall be working on for the future.”

He said he was “disappointed” to see scores deteriorating at 31 trusts.

Ciaran Devane, chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “It is really positive that just about half of NHS trusts in England have improved the quality of care they give to people with cancer.”