BMJ 2001;323:864 ( 13 October )

Letters

Two week rule for cancer referrals

    Reducing waiting times from diagnosis to treatment might be more effective
    All stages of care pathway need speeding up
    Specialists, not GPs, may be best qualified to assess urgency

Reducing waiting times from diagnosis to treatment might be more effective

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITORIn their editorial on the two week rule for cancer referrals Jones et al discuss the fact that steps to meet the target for "urgent" referrals have led to a doubling of waiting time for "routine" cases.¹ This is exactly the result we would expect from our calculations modelling waiting times with a Monte Carlo model based on Poisson fluctuations in demand.²

To sustain a waiting time below two weeks, capacity needs to exceed mean demand by approximately two patients a week for a wide range of values of mean demand. This applies to any appointment, including those for diagnostic and staging procedures, as well as for treatment. Applying this excess capacity to a subgroup of urgent referrals is inherently less efficient than applying it to reduce the waits for all patients. If a fast track for urgent referrals is created by transferring resources from routine cases, this . . . [Full text of this article]

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Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Improving cancer waiting times now with the Collaborative

David Levy
bmj.com, 17 Oct 2001 [Full text]

Two week cancer referrals

Paddy O'Reilly
bmj.com, 21 Oct 2001 [Full text]

patients face significant waits for investigations

Peter Sykes
bmj.com, 26 Nov 2001 [Full text]

The power of partnership

Mitzi AJ Blennerhassett
bmj.com, 31 May 2002 [Full text]

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