Cancer: review within 3 months

Indicator

The percentage of patients with cancer, diagnosed within the preceding 12 months, who have had a discussion within 3 months of diagnosis about the support available from primary care.

Resource impact

It is estimated that 269 million appointments in general practice were attended in England between 01 January 2019 and 31 December 2019 (NHS Digital’s Appointments in General Practice), equivalent to around 920 per week for a GP practice assuming a list size of 10,000 people. There are around 56.0 million people in England (Office for National Statistics, 2018). The latest data available (see Office for National Statistics cancer registration statistics 2017) indicates that around 306,000 people in England were diagnosed with cancer in 2017. This is equivalent to around 55 people per 10,000 people. 

Assuming that all people with a new diagnosis of cancer are contacted by a GP practice within 3 months, around 55 GP appointments per year would be made per GP practice, around 2,730 in a Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) area, as shown in table 1.

Table 1 Estimated annual resource impact of providing discussions for 100% of the eligible population

-	People accepting appointment	Maximum number of consultations
Per GP practice (10,000 people)	100%	55
Per STP (500,000 people)	100%	2,730

 This assumes a GP practice is 10,000 people and an STP is 500,000 people. The numbers shown in the table above are the maximum number of consultations expected per year. If discussions take place during existing consultations or cancer reviews already take place, it is not anticipated that there will be a significant impact. If any additional consultations are required or there is a change to the standard slot time, this may lead to a small resource impact.