Harpal Kumar, the Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK, yesterday posted a blog about the new task force he is leading for NHS England on cancer diagnosis.  The aim of the task force is to enable people to get an earlier and speedier diagnosis of their tumour in the future.  But it will also be looking at treatment and after care. The initiative is badly needed and it is encouraging that it has such a strong focus on piloting ideas rather than simply cogitating what ‘might be.’

Many of the Sunday newspapers picked up on the specific proposal to allow patients to self-refer themselves to specialists for diagnostic tests.  If you believe in patients taking greater control over how their health needs are met, then this sort of direct referral is the logical next step.

Who knows what it means for GPs though?  I think many patients empathise with their GP about workload and the pressures of the job.  But I am sure they are less than enamoured, as I am, by the way the profession presents itself.  One of the unwritten stories for 2014 is how the GP profession has successfully rebranded itself as the real victims of health service reform.  And there was I thinking it is service users!

I suspect I will be told that my view is just one person’s perspective or experience (and, yes, my family did have a less than brilliant experience of primary care this Christmas) and doesn’t reflect the ‘truth.’  However, I seem to remember the Kremlin saying this about its critics before the Berlin Wall came down.

The interesting thing about the issue of self-referral is that it also came out as a very strong signal in the public feedback about the UK Clinical Trials Gateway in 2012.  In the survey NIHR conducted, approximately two thirds of people said they would prefer to be given the option of going straight to a clinical trial unit to discuss the possibility of participating in a clinical trial rather than being referred back to their GP by UKCTG.  Why?  Well, again, it is this perception that their GP is the ‘middle man’ blocking their path – rather than being a gatekeeper – to trying new treatments.

Since then, there continues to be an increase in the number of research active GP practices thanks to some sterling work by the NIHR Clinical Research Networks.  But perhaps direct referral should be the way forward for research to increase patient choice and participation.  If this capability can not be built around our clinical trial units across the country, perhaps it is something that our Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) might think about supporting – a service in each region that patients could refer themselves too and take the strain off GPs and other serices.

Cancer might well be a good test bed for this and something the task force should consider.  One in three cancer patients have a discussion with their doctor about research with many of these going on to take part in research as a result (National Cancer Patient Experience Survey 2012-2014).