An advice and guidance process allows a clinician to seek advice from another. It is a communication between two clinicians: the “requesting” clinician (referrer) and the provider of a service (the “responding” clinician). These services are becoming more widely available across the NHS as either an embedded ERS process or via other services. The new advice and guidance process within the urgent suspected cancer referral process will align with guidance being developed across the NHS.
The two-week-wait pan-London urgent suspected referral forms were updated in 2021 to include an option urgent haemato-oncology advice & guidance (within 2 working days). This includes patients with abnormal results not meeting the criteria for 2WW referral about who the referring GP has a particular clinical concern.
GPs may still choose to use existing local A&G services but the A&G option through the 2WW allows these patients to be identified and managed better and an appointment is requested through the ERS system at the same time (as you would for other suspected cancer referrals). Embedded A&G means direct access to haematological oncology advice rather than general haematology.