Registration link: https://medtribe.com/courses/nel-head-neck-urgent-suspected-cancer-referral-pathways-best-practice-top-tips?utm_medium=copy-link&utm_source=share-modal
Presenters:
- Jagdeep Virk – Consultant ENT Surgeon, Barts Health
- Purnima Sangwan – Consultant ENT Surgeon, Homerton Healthcare
- Joyti Sood – General Practitioner, Newbury Group Practice
This presentation provides an overview of best practice for Urgent Suspected Cancer (USC) referrals in Head and Neck (H&N) pathways across North East London.
It explores referral trends and challenges since 2019, highlighting the impact of increasing low-risk referrals on service capacity and diagnostic efficiency.
The session shares insights from both primary and secondary care to improve the quality, clarity, and appropriateness of referrals—covering key topics such as risk factors, common and atypical presentations, and the role of early imaging and diagnostics. It also outlines Trust-specific pathways, illustrating what referrers can expect at each site, and introduces the updated HaNC-RC v2 triage tool, designed to enhance predictive accuracy and support more effective triage of USC referrals. Overall, the presentation aims to promote better referral quality, earlier cancer detection, and more efficient use of clinical resources across the NEL system.
