For anyone involved in an emergency or needing urgent treatment, the experience can be scary and prolonged. For those who have cancer, the prospect is far more daunting. In Cheshire and Merseyside, health leaders have collaborated to create pathways and processes which ensure that cancer patients can avoid visits to A&E and potentially long stays in hospital awaiting decisions and treatment. We hear how they created a model which is now being held up as an exemplar nationally. Caroline Kenyon is in conversation with Dr Ernie Marshall, consultant medical oncologist at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust; Dr Ragit Varia, acute medical lead for the urgent cancer care programme based at Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust; and Mel Warwick, programme lead. Useful links NHS Providers case study: https://nhsproviders.org/providers-deliver-trusts-in-systems/the-clatterbridge-cancer-centre-nhs-foundation-trust The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust: https://www.clatterbridgecc.nhs.uk/