• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Accessibility
  • Terms and settings
  • Site map
NHS County Durham CCG

NHS County Durham CCG

County Durham Clinical Commissioning Group

  • Home
  • About us
  • Our work
  • Get involved
  • Events
  • Documents
  • News
  • Contact Us

NHS bosses urge people to contact their GP if they have symptoms of lung cancer which are similar to Covid

30th September 2020

The numbers of people contacting their GP with suspected cancer symptoms dropped dramatically during the Covid-19 pandemic. Although referral rates are steadily going up, people with lung cancer symptoms are not coming forward.

Dr Stewart Findlay, chief officer, NHS County Durham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said, ‘The symptoms of lung cancer are a persistent cough, coughing up blood, persistent breathlessness, unexplained tiredness and weight loss, an ache or pain when breathing or coughing.

‘The symptoms of coronavirus are a high temperature, a new continuous cough and a loss of your normal sense of taste or smell. You can see the symptoms are similar and we want to offer clear advice to people about what to do.’

If people are concerned about lung cancer because they have symptoms, they should contact their GP. They will speak to you on the phone or ask you to attend an appointment at the surgery if necessary.

Your doctor may arrange for you to have a nose or throat swab test to check if your symptoms are related to COVID-19. If the test is negative, and they think that your ongoing symptoms need to be investigated, they may refer you for further tests.

Whilst waiting for your test and if your test is positive you will need to follow guidance to self-isolate. With a positive test if after 10 days, you still have a temperature you should continue to self-isolate and seek medical advice. If after recovery from Covid, you have symptoms of lung cancer, a persistent cough, coughing up blood, persistent breathlessness, unexplained tiredness and weight loss, an ache or pain when breathing or coughing, contact your GP.

Cancer services are, where possible, returning to normal in many areas with“COVID-19 free” sites or areas for treatment and care services to enable those services to be provided and to reduce risk of infection. Safety is a high priority, and decisions about the timing and location of tests, assessments and treatment will be made while weighing up possible risk from COVID-19.

Primary Sidebar

Search the site

Find events, news, documents and more.

Patient transport in County Durham. Find out more.

Copyright © 2023 · County Durham CCG Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Manage Cookie Consent
We use cookies to optimise our website and our service.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}