Your General Practitioner (GP) or dentist may have asked for you to have an urgent hospital appointment within two weeks. Depending on your symptoms, this appointment may be to attend an outpatient clinic, a diagnostic test (such as an x-ray or endoscopy) or a combination of the two.
The two week appointment system was introduced so that any patient with symptoms that might indicate a serious condition such as cancer, could be seen by a specialist as quickly as possible. Attending this appointment within two weeks is vitally important and will allow you to benefit from:
- An early diagnosis and earlier access to treatment, which is shown to improve health outcomes or, (help people to live longer with their cancer).
- In most cases, early reassurance that cancer has not been diagnosed