Referral forms and guidance

This section is provided for health professionals (GPs, dentists, pharmacists etc).

Members of the general public are welcome to use these pages but should be aware that they are not written with them in mind. Please choose an option on the left for information aimed at the general public.

Two week waits

Urgent referral of patients with suspected cancer (under 2-week wait rule)

The National Institute of Clinical Excellence revised their urgent referral criteria for GPs and dentists to use when referring a patient under the two-week wait rule in the autumn of 2005.  These have been discussed by all the relevant site-specific Tumour Groups in the Sussex Cancer Network (SCN) and adapted as below for local use.  

• NICE referral guidance

Two-week wait rule

The GP may refer a patient they suspect of having cancer to be seen within 14 days of referral by a specialist.  This is on the understanding that the GP faxes/emails their referral within 24 hours of their decision to refer.

When referring patients under the two-week wait rule, please ensure the following information is provided:

• The patients NHS number, as a unique identifier
• Your practice fax number (to enable a confirmatory fax to be sent by the hospital to confirm receipt of the referral)
• In addition it is really important that you make clear to the patient that they are being referred urgently and therefore should expect an appointment within 14 days (hence the patient letter in the pack).  We have had some hospital administration staff put in a very difficult position when ringing patients to try and get them booked in within the 14 days and patients do not understand that there is any urgency.
• Patient information sheet

At the moment within the SCN about 10% of patients referred under the two-week rule turn out to have a cancer.  Appropriateness of referral is therefore key and consultant colleagues in secondary care are asked where possible to feed back on inappropriate referrals to individual GPs and PCTs. 

The below 12 urgent referral proformas have been agreed by the Sussex Cancer Network tumour groups.

Referral forms

• EMIS referral forms (link to external website)
• Non EMIS referral forms (link to external website)