How the Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer are being (a) communicated and (b) implemented to ensure early diagnosis of lung …

To support GPs in Scotland to refer patients with suspected cancer as early as possible, the Scottish Government published referral guidance in 2007, called the ‘Scottish Executive Health Department Letter (2007) 9: Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer’.
Healthcare Improvement Scotland have been leading on a review of these Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer. Review groups have been established for each tumour group, with membership of each including clinicians from secondary and primary care, members of the Scottish Cancer Coalition and patient representatives. The lung cancer review group produced draft guidelines for suspected lung cancers, which were sent out for wide clinical, patient and public consultation prior to being published in October 2013.
To support effective communication and implementation of the revised guidelines a series of primary care education session were held in autumn 2014 in partnership with Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. These sessions are now available for primary care professionals to view online.
The remaining guidelines are under review and all guidelines will be published by late summer 2014.
A further sub-group has being convened to support the effective dissemination and implementation of the revised guidelines with support from Macmillan Cancer Support.