Primary care resources
Cancer screening guidance and information
NHS national screening programmes
The NHS England website has information about the three national cancer screening programmes in England – bowel, breast and cervical.
Cancer screening resource directory
A pan-London directory of cancer screening resources has been developed for all health and social care professionals to aid conversations with patients and service users. The resource provides information, advice and guidance on the three NHS national cancer screening programmes – bowel, breast, and cervical screening.
It was developed in partnership with the NHS North Central London Cancer Alliance, NHS England (London region) Cancer Screening Commissioning Team and the Transforming Cancer Services Team.
It is hosted on the Transformation Partners in Health and Care website.
Pan London Cancer Screening Resource Directory May 2024
GatewayC
The early cancer diagnosis resource, GatewayC, provides innovative, and tailored information to support early cancer detection. It has training modules covering the three national cancer screening programmes. These FREE courses are designed to support primary care to implement national screening programmes, and are worth 1 CPD point.
Cancer Screening Timelines
RM Partners has developed two cancer screening timelines for primary care professionals to provide to patients. The timelines include details of what NHS cancer screening programmes are available, eligibility information and how to access screening.
Cancer Screening and You July 2024
National Cancer Screening Programme Information (updated June 2024)
Cancer Screening For People Experiencing Homelessness
The four NHS Cancer Alliances in London commissioned Groundswell, a homelessness charity, to develop cancer screening guides for people experiencing homelessness in the capital. This was achieved with support from NHS London Region Cancer Screening Commissioning Team.
The three guides focus on each of the national cancer screening programmes (bowel, breast and cervical). The guides are tailored for people experiencing homelessness and those who support them. They provide information on what cancer screening is, why it is important, how to take part and what reasonable adjustments are in place to encourage screening participation.
- Taking part in bowel cancer screening August 2024
- Taking part in breast screening August 2024
- Taking part in cervical screening August 2024
Print and electronic guides in English are also available on the Groundswell resource hub and the Transformation Partners in Health and Care Cancer Screening Directory webpages. Translated versions will be available soon.
In addition North Central London Cancer Alliance have also developed some FAQs about screening and the reasonable adjustments available.
With thanks to North Central London Cancer Alliance who have led this work and have had these resources produced as part of their project to improve cancer screening for people experiencing homelessness.
Additional Resources
This guidance for primary care on providing cervical screening for trans men and non-binary people with a cervix builds on the successful RM Partners No Barriers pilot. The guidance was developed by people with lived experience and colleagues in primary care, secondary care, specialist and charitable sectors. It aims to raise awareness among primary care clinicians of the particular needs of this community, and ensure they receive equitable access to healthcare in their local community.
London Breast Screening Communications Toolkit October 2023
This downloadable toolkit produced by the NHS London breast screening service provides information and resources for NHS staff, charities and voluntary organisations at local and regional level to work together to support improvement projects and to increase uptake across the capital. It aims to bring together current resources from various organisations to help the London breast screening system to promote the programme to both clients and healthcare professionals.
Pan London urgent suspected cancer referral forms
The Transforming Cancer Services Team has produced Pan-London Urgent Suspected Cancer Referral Forms. These replace the suspected cancer referral forms produced by the former cancer networks. The forms, educational resources and support information are available from Healthy London Partnership
Breast referral guidance
Breast Referral Guidance for Primary Care June 2022
RM Partners worked alongside clinicians from both primary and secondary care, to develop a useful pictorial guide to assist primary care to be aware of different breast symptoms and when it is appropriate to refer to secondary care.
RM Partners breast pain advice November 2023
Management of breast pain in primary care BMJ Nov 2023
Prostate cancer guidance
Prostate Cancer UK has developed guidance to support GP practices and Primary Care Networks to proactively identify and assess patients that may be at risk of prostate cancer as per the requirements of the PCN DES for Early Cancer Diagnosis.
Primary Care Networks toolkit October 2023
Primary care flowchart for STT pathway October 2023
Risk awareness presentation October 2023
Additional guidance
Gynaecology Referral Top Tips September 2023
Urology Suspected Cancer Pathways primary care education February 2023 (updated May 2024)
This resource helps primary care teams understand when to dispense a FIT kit prior to making a referral for suspicion of cancer and what the referral pathways are based on different FIT results.
West London educational webinars
Educational webinars are delivered by RM Partners clinical colleagues for West London primary care staff on a range of topics to help improve recognition of symptoms suggestive of cancer and quality of urgent referrals.
GatewayC
The early cancer diagnosis resource, GatewayC, provides innovative, and tailored information to support early cancer detection. It has training modules covering the three national cancer screening programmes. These FREE courses are designed to support primary care to implement national screening programmes, and are worth 1 CPD point.
Early diagnosis bite-sized modules
South East London Cancer Alliance has developed an early cancer diagnosis resource for primary care. The online resource will comprise of seven bitesize modules, each focusing on a specific cancer or group of cancers, and can be completed within 10 minutes.
The following modules are now available:
- Introduction to head and neck cancer for primary care
- Introduction to pancreatic cancer for primary care
- Introduction to lung cancer for primary care
- Introduction to myeloma for primary care
- Introduction to oesophageal cancer for primary care
- Introduction to oral cancer for primary care
- Introduction to brain and CNS cancers for primary care
This section contains cancer related information for patients. The material is from a range of reliable resources including NHS England and trusted charity partners. The videos and leaflets relate to the national cancer screening programmes as well as diagnostic tests for other tumours. Some of the content is aimed specifically at people with learning disability.
Screening and earlier diagnosis, NHS England
How to do the FIT bowel cancer screening test, Cancer Research UK
Cancer screening timelines
RM Partners has developed two cancer screening timelines for primary care professionals to provide to patients. The timelines include details of what NHS cancer screening programmes are available, eligibility information and how to access screening.
Cancer Screening and You June 2024
National Cancer Screening Programme Information (updated June 2024)
Cancer screening for people experiencing homelessness
The four NHS Cancer Alliances in London commissioned Groundswell, a homelessness charity, to develop cancer screening guides for people experiencing homelessness in the capital. This was achieved with support from NHS London Region Cancer Screening Commissioning Team.
The three guides focus on each of the national cancer screening programmes (bowel, breast and cervical). The guides are tailored for people experiencing homelessness and those who support them.
They provide information on what cancer screening is, why it is important, how to take part and what reasonable adjustments are in place to encourage screening participation.
The leaflets are available in English and have been translated into additional languages.
Taking part in bowel cancer screening, August 2024
English, Amharic, Arabic, Bulgarian, Farsi, French, Hindi, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tigrinya
Taking part in breast screening, August 2024
English, Amharic, Arabic, Bulgarian, Farsi, French, Hindi, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tigrinya
Taking part in cervical screening August 2024
English, Amharic, Arabic, Bulgarian, Farsi, French, Hindi, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tigrinya
Breast pain
Understanding Breast Pain video RM Partners, 2021
Prostate cancer animated videos
- Prostate cancer: You are not alone (July 2023)
- Prostate cancer: We pretend it doesn’t exist (July 2023)
- Don’t wait: Get the PSA blood test (July 2023)
- Don’t wait: The earlier you speak to your GP the better (July 2023)
Cancer information for people with learning disability
Mencap in Sutton, part of the UK charity supporting people with learning disability, created a series of videos explaining cancer screening.
- What is cancer? (January 2023)
- Bowel cancer screening (January 2023)
- Breast cancer screening (February 2023)
- Cervical cancer screening (August 2023)
Breast Screening film for women with learning disabilities – www.dothetest.org
North Central London Cancer Alliance worked with service users from the Elfrida Society, which supports and works with people who have learning disabilities, to develop an easy read leaflet with information about the three national cancer screening programmes.
Cancer screening patient information May 2023.
Cancer information and support for people with serious mental illness
South East London Cancer Alliance and the Health Innovation Network co-designed these resources with people with lived experience of cancer and serious mental illness, as well as both mental health and oncology specialist clinicians.
The resource content is designed for any person with serious mental illness living anywhere in England who wants to know more about cancer advice and support.