Acute Oncology Services provide a co-ordinated approach to the care of patients with cancer who attend the care provision setting as an emergency or who are admitted to hospital non-electively with any of the following presentations:
Type I – all patients in whom a first diagnosis of cancer is suspected in the emergency setting.
Type II – patients with known cancer who present as an emergency with acute complications of non-surgical treatment, including systemic anti-cancer therapy (SACT) or radiotherapy.
Type IIIa – patients with known cancer and are acutely ill because of the disease itself; this group represent the largest proportion of emergency patients and often present with complex issues including comorbidity, progressive cancer and end of life needs.
Type IIIb – patients with known cancer and are acutely ill because of comorbidity.
The triage phonelines for patients who present unexpectedly are also often managed via the Acute Oncology Service. These services provide a single point of access for patients to report symptoms experienced where they are safely triaged according to the UKONS Telephone Triage Framework. All patients who receive systemic anticancer treatment will have been provided with their triage contact number.