Safety Netting and Re-consultation for lung cancer symptoms: GP and patient perspectives

Safety netting is a consultation technique that GPs use when they are not entirely sure of what is wrong with a patient who has come in with low risk or vague symptoms. Safety netting covers a broad range of activities that GPs use to stop these patients from ‘slipping through the net’. This is an important part of making primary care safe for patients, and avoid misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis.

Safety netting is particularly relevant for people with lung symptoms, as these are extremely common, but can sometimes be a sign of serious disease. Safety netting guidelines suggest that GPs should tell patients that (1) they aren’t 100% sure what is wrong (2) which symptoms of serious disease the patient should look out for and (3) how long it should take for their symptoms to go away.

We don’t know whether patients understand or follow safety netting advice they are given by their GP. In our study, we interview patients who have recently seen a GP to discuss a lung symptom such as a cough. Then we speak to the patient again after about 6 weeks.  We also interview the GP. This helps us to see what both the patient and the GP have understood in the consultation, and how this impacts on the patient’s thoughts and behaviours later on.

The project is funded by the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation and champions its Patient Experience aim: to understand barriers to early diagnosis of lung cancer. We aim to develop recommendations for general practice to encourage people to come back to see their GP promptly if their symptoms continue. Our study has a particular focus on patients who live in areas of social deprivation, as they are disproportionately affected by lung cancer.
 

Principal Investigator:

Dr Georgia Black

Project Staff:

Dr Fiona Walter, University of Cambridge

Dr Katrina Whitaker, University of Surrey

Researcher:

Dr Sandra van Os

Patient Collaborator:

Colin Anderson, Patient Representative and Chair of Whipps Cross Hospital patient panel

Academic Collaborators:

Prof William Hamilton, Professor of Primary Care Diagnostics, University of Exeter

Dr Georgios  Lyratzopoulos, Clinical Reader in Public Health, University College London

Dr Christina Renzi, Senior Clinical Research Associate, University College London

Funder:  Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation

Start Date: June 2018

Duration: 24 months

Contact: s.os@ucl.acl.uk