Patients who see their doctor within 48 hours are less likely to be diagnosed later with cancer in A&E.

Patients who are able to see their GPs within 48 hours are less likely to have their initial cancer diagnosis via an emergency hospital admisssion, research conducted by the Dr Foster Unit has found.

In a paper published by the British Journal of Cancer, the ease of getting appointments with family doctors can play an important role in detecting cancer symptoms early and increasing the chance of survival.

Patients living in a deprived areas, doctors' surgeries which had lower scores for quality and those having no GPs who were trained in the UK were more likely to be admitted as an emergency.

The study looked at patients across nearly 8,000 GP practices between 2007 and 2010 and found 22% were admitted as emergency first time cancer admissions.

Dr Alex Bottle, study author, said: ‘Our study shows the importance of having fast access to primary care. Socio-economic deprivation, however, has a far more important effect in terms of numbers of people affected.'

‘GP practices where more patients are able to get an appointment with their GP within 48 hours were less likely to have patients turn up as emergency admissions to hospital.