New NICE Cancer Guidelines represent an Important Advance in Primary Care - RCGP
Jun 22, 2005 - 6:08:00 PM
The guidance will also help GPs and nurses to evaluate the significance of signs and symptoms so that they can distinguish between those many hundreds of patients who might present with, for example, tiredness or a cough each year, and the one or two who might actually have the early symptoms of cancer.
By Royal College of GPs (RCGP), UK, [RxPG] The Royal College of GPs (RCGP) feels that these guidelines represent the most important advance in the early diagnosis and management of cancer within primary care for a long time. We are confident that they will help GPs and nurses to be more precise in pinpointing those patients who require urgent referral and ensuring they get the level of care they need quickly and sympathetically.
The guidance will also help GPs and nurses to evaluate the significance of signs and symptoms so that they can distinguish between those many hundreds of patients who might present with, for example, tiredness or a cough each year, and the one or two who might actually have the early symptoms of cancer.
We are also confident that the Quick Reference version of the guidelines will be easy for busy health care professionals to use.
A delayed diagnosis of cancer is a tragedy for the patient and distressing for the GP, and so we welcome these guidelines and urge primary care health professionals to implement them in their daily practice.
The new guidance can be found on the NICE website here www.nice.org.uk/page.aspx?o=261765
NICE National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence www.nice.org.uk
NCCPC National Collaborating Centre for Primary Care. Based at the RCGP, the NCCPC is one of seven National Collaborating Centres (NCCs) to help develop clinical guidelines by harnessing the expertise of the royal medical colleges, professional bodies and patient/carer organisations. Each NCC is a professionally led group. www.rcgp.org.uk/nccpc/index.asp
The Royal College of General Practitioners is the largest membership organisation in the United Kingdom solely for GPs. It aims to encourage and maintain the highest standards of general medical practice and to act as the voice of GPs on issues concerned with education; training; research; and clinical standards. Founded in 1952, the RCGP has over 22,500 members who are committed to improving patient care, developing their own skills and promoting general practice as a discipline. Promoting excellence in family medicine www.rcgp.org.uk
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