UK SURGERY DOCTORS TO ENFORCE JESS’S RULE- Streeting says the rule is to empower patients to speak up
UK Surgery doctors this week will be enforcing the Jess’s Rule’—a major new push to ensure that serious illnesses like cancer don’t slip through the cracks.”
The Rule is a direct instruction to GPs, urging them to hit the ‘reset’ button if a patient has had three appointments without a clear diagnosis, which means seeking a second opinion, ordering more tests, and—critically—seeing the patient face-to-face for a proper examination.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting, in a letter to all six-thousand-one-hundred-and-seventy clinics in England this morning, said every patient deserves to be heard and that this rule is about ’empowering’ you to speak up if you feel something isn’t right.
Research has reportedly found that half of 16 to 24-year-olds have to visit their GP three or more times before a cancer diagnosis is made. Compare that to one-in-five for the rest of the population.
