Abstract Introduction One of the most common suspected urgent referral types in England is the suspicion of breast cancer, with 484587 referrals recorded in 2022/23. East Lancashire Teaching Hospital Trust (ELHT) sees over 6000 referrals each year. This significant volume underscores the need for an efficient triage system to ensure timely care and optimise resource utilisation in the breast service. Methods A prospective audit of patients referred to the breast unit who were redirected or rejected when triaged between October 2023 and October 2024. Results 341 patient referrals were captured as rejected or diverted. Of these, 268 were diverted to breast pain clinic, 32 to one stop clinic (OSC), 30 to review clinic and 11 for discussion on MDT. 30 cases were rejected. Discussion and Conclusion The triage system successfully optimised patient pathways, preserving OSC capacity for high-risk and symptomatic cases while redirecting low-risk patients to the breast pain clinic. Likewise, it appropriately redirected patients not suitable for breast pain clinic to the OSC. Further development of alternative pathways for common benign conditions such as gynecomastia and nipple discharge will further help more appropriate diverts from OSC. However, one limitation was data entry inconsistencies, as not all clinicians always recorded their triages potentially underrepresentation the patient cohort. Nevertheless, the triage system demonstrates its value in streamlining pathways and improving resource allocation.
Chadzimura et al. (Fri,) studied this question.