Pre-referral general practitioner consultations and subsequent experience of cancer care: Evidence from the English Cancer Patient Experience Survey
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Publication Date
2015-07-30Journal Title
European Journal of Cancer Care
ISSN
0961-5423
Publisher
Wiley
Language
English
Type
Article
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Mendonca, S. C., Abel, G., Saunders, C., Wardle, J., & Lyratzopoulos, G. (2015). Pre-referral general practitioner consultations and subsequent experience of cancer care: Evidence from the English Cancer Patient Experience Survey. European Journal of Cancer Care https://doi.org/10.1111/ecc.12353
Abstract
Prolonged diagnostic intervals may negatively affect the patient experience of subsequent cancer care, but evidence about this assertion is sparse. We analysed data from 73,462 respondents to two English Cancer Patient Experience Surveys to examine whether patients with three or more (3+) pre-referral consultations were more likely to report negative experiences of subsequent care compared with patients with 1 or 2 consultations in respect of 12 a priori selected survey questions. For each of 12 experience items, logistic regression models were used, adjusting for prior consultation category, cancer site, socio-demographic case-mix and response tendency. There was strong evidence (p<0.01 for all) that patients with 3+ pre-referral consultations reported worse care experience for 10/12 questions, with adjusted odds ratios compared with patients with 1-2 consultations ranging from 1.13 (95% confidence intervals 1.08-1.19) to 1.68 (1.60-1.77), or between +1.5% and +10.6% greater percentage reporting a negative experience. Associations were stronger for processes involving primary as opposed to hospital care; and for evaluation than report items. Considering 1, 2, 3-4 and ‘5+’ pre-referral consultations separately a ‘dose-response’ relationship was apparent. We conclude that there is a negative association between multiple pre-diagnostic consultations with a general practitioner and the experience of subsequent cancer care.
Keywords
Cancer, oncology, patient experience, referral, general practitioner, consultation
Sponsorship
GL is supported by a Cancer Research UK Clinician Scientist Fellowship (A18180). JW is supported by Cancer Research UK Programme Grant C1418/A14134.
Funder references
National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) (via Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)) (unknown)
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ecc.12353
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/248934
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Licence URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/