Terrified

To confirm there is an NHS obligation that urgent referrals of this nature are 2 WEEKS maximum from date of referral. Mine was only four days.

I've literally just had an email about a telephone appointment next week - would this count towards the 2ww or is it being seen/tested? I don't know whether this phone consultation is just kicking the van down the road to say they've hit their target?

I think the two weeks is a “target” rather than an obligations. The NHS has many targets but unfortunately many of them are not being met 

Hi Mese

I got an endoscopy next day after reporting to A&E. Following biopsy and scan diagnosed with S4 inoperable oesophageal cancer. Oncologist in Brighton gave me till Christmas. Fast forward. Managed to get on clinical trial at UCLH having combo of immunotherapy and chemo. Last two scans have shown Complete Response to treatment. So far so good …

My advice before going private would be to investigate the possibilities of a clinical trial. 

Best wishes 

David

He had a CT scan the Friday, 16th August, after the endoscopy, 9th August. He saw the surgeon on 27th, which is when he was told surgery wasn't an option. The appointment with the oncologist was the next Friday, 30th. His 1st treatment session was 18th September. It would have started sooner if he hadn't screened into the clinical trial. I think it was a week's delay. 

Rod gets the results from his review CT this afternoon. Apart from the side effects, he is doing well in that his eating it completely back to normal.

This must be such a difficult time for you and, of course, you will be planning for all possible outcomes.

Sending love 

Lorraine

No, I hadn’t got an appointment date. My timeline was as follows;

12 Oct - GP appointment & endoscopy referral

17 Oct - Private consultant appointment 

19 Oct - Endoscopy & CT scan

24 Oct - received cancer diagnosis

After that, everything moved pretty swiftly on through NHS. PET scans, blood tests, appointments, laparoscopy, chemo started 13 Dec, surgery 29 Feb, post-op chemo started 15 May and all treatment finished 12 June. 
The consultant I went to see actually performed my surgery so it was nice to have that continuity. Hope this has been helpful. Maybe I wouldn’t have had too much longer to wait for an endoscopy on the NHS. I just don’t know. But I don’t regret my decision to go privately as it definitely saved me some time and allowed me to fit in one chemo session before Christmas which reduced the tumour enough to allow me to enjoy my Christmas dinner. Hopefully your results will come back as Barrett’s Oesophagus or something else. If not then you can be assured of excellent support and advice here and excellent treatment on the NHS. Good luck to you CB

Hi David,

So glad to hear that the treatment went well for you. I’m sure every day must feel like a blessing. CB

Hi Mese 

Yes I think that a telephone consultation is counted within the 2WW structure .Unfortunately hospitals are struggling to meet their targets with face to face appointments.Totally unacceptable in suspected cancer cases ! 

regards J 

Targets for cancer waiting times

The draft waiting times targets for cancer state that:

1. At least 98% of patients diagnosed with cancer should begin their first definitive treatment within 31 days of a decision to treat.
2. At least 95% of patients should begin their first definitive treatment for cancer within 62 days of an urgent General Practitioner (GP) referral for suspect cancer.
3. All urgent breast cancer referrals should be seen within 14 days.
   
   

For the area where I live, for the quarter ending June 2024, 91.4% made Target 1 but only 35.8% made Target 2. I started treatment exactly 62 days after my initial GP referral. Different areas around the country will of course have different degrees of success in achieving their targets. 

Thanks everyone. I've contacted a private hospital to find out about their wait times/fees but suspect that it's going to be out of my reach. I'll have to wait until next week and push for the earliest possible endoscopy when I have the phone call. Guessing the only other option is A&E to speed up the process but it's not an emergency and I'd feel terrible if it turned out to be something innocuous.