Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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719. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to provide general practitioner settings with cancer diagnostic tools. [50379/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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General practitioners have a key role in the detection of cancer as the GP is often the first contact for patients presenting symptoms of cancer. Where a diagnosis of cancer is suspected, the GP can refer the patient for appropriate diagnostic testing or to see the appropriate consultant, to confirm or disconfirm the GP’s suspicion.

The National Cancer Control Programme has worked with the Irish College of General Practitioners and hospital-based cancer specialists in the development and implementation of GP referral guidelines for numerous types of cancer. These guidelines are accompanied by disease-specific standardised referral forms which assist the GP to document important clinical features which helps the hospital to triage patients.