Patient experience of the “two-week wait” cancer referral pathway in a large secondary care department in England

Background: The 2-week wait (2WW) system has been implemented across the NHS in England to enable rapid referral of patients with squamous cell carcinoma and malignant melanoma from primary to secondary care. Patients are told that the referral is to exclude skin cancer. In our secondary care dermatology department, a 2-week lag between referral and dermatology consultation represents a 19-week reduction in wait time (WT) from a standard referral. Little is currently known about the patients' perception of this streamlining, how WT impacts patient quality of life, and how appropriate patients consider this WT when being referred for suspected malignancy.