Clinical safety
Use your own team’s instructions first
Use the contact number and urgent-care advice your team gave you for new or worsening symptoms. If you are having systemic anti-cancer treatment, use the 24-hour number on your treatment alert card. Call 999 for a life-threatening emergency.
Make the call before you need it
Prepare the contact plan while you feel well. Your hospital’s instructions and treatment alert information come before any general online list.
Your personal escalation card
Give a copy to anyone likely to call on your behalf.
- Save the 24-hour treatment number and test it against the written information.
- Keep treatment alert information accessible outside the home too.
- Record the upper, lower or other thresholds given by your own unit.
- List symptoms the unit says to report immediately, including those without fever.
- Ask what to do if essential medicines will not stay down or a dose is uncertain.
- Keep a short symptom record without delaying a call to complete it.
- Know which life-threatening signs require 999 instead of the treatment line.
Before treatment, ask
Ask again whenever treatment changes.
- Which symptoms should I report immediately?
- Which temperature limits apply to my treatment?
- What should I do if I vomit or miss a dose?
- Which bought medicines or remedies must I check first?
- What is the backup if I cannot reach the treatment number?
A call that gives the team what it needs
Lead with treatment and timing.
“I am receiving this treatment and my last dose was on this date. These symptoms began at this time. My temperature is this, and my team’s instruction says this.”
“I am unsure whether this is urgent, so I am calling rather than waiting.”
Make the call before you need certainty
Side-effect plans work best when they tell you whom to call, what changes matter and what to say. You do not need to diagnose the cause before asking for help.
Some effects are expected and manageable with the medicines or advice supplied by your team. Others need prompt assessment because infection, dehydration, a blood clot or a treatment reaction can worsen quickly. The important change may be severity, speed, persistence or simply that you feel suddenly different. People receiving systemic anti-cancer treatment can sometimes be seriously unwell without a fever, and medicines such as steroids or paracetamol may affect temperature, so do not use one normal reading to dismiss how you feel.
Your own treatment card and hospital instructions take priority because temperature thresholds and risks differ between treatments and services. Contact the 24-hour cancer or acute oncology number for a new or worsening symptom that the team told you to report, for signs of infection, or when self-care and prescribed rescue medicines are not working. If you cannot reach the team, use the fallback route they gave you; NHS 111 can help when you are unsure whom to contact, while 999 is for an immediate life-threatening emergency.
When you call, the nurse is assessing risk rather than judging whether you have coped well enough. Give the treatment name if known, date of the last dose, when the problem began, temperature, medicines taken and whether you can drink, pass urine, breathe and stay awake normally. Follow the location they give you; the safest place may not be your usual clinic.
A practical way through it
Use the parts that fit your situation and leave the rest.
- Check immediate safetyCall 999 for severe difficulty breathing, severe chest pain, collapse, a seizure, uncontrolled heavy bleeding, blue or grey lips or skin, or if someone is very confused or hard to wake. Do not drive yourself in an emergency.
- Use your treatment instructions firstFind the 24-hour number and the exact temperature or symptom rules on your alert card. Keep a photograph of the card on your phone and share the number with the person supporting you.
- Measure without delayingIf available, take your temperature and note the time. Do not wait for repeated readings or for a fever to appear if you feel shivery, suddenly unwell, breathless or otherwise significantly worse.
- Describe the change clearlyStart with the most concerning fact: “I had treatment on Tuesday and now…” Include onset, severity, number of episodes, fluid intake, urine, pain, breathing and any line, wound or rash changes.
- Say what you have already takenList anti-sickness medicines, pain relief, steroids, antibiotics or other rescue treatments and whether they helped. Ask before taking extra or doubling a missed dose.
- Repeat the plan backConfirm whether to stay home, call again, attend a named unit or use emergency services, and by what time. Write down the name of the service and take your medicines and treatment card if asked to attend.
What this can look like
Feeling unwell with a normal temperature
In the evening after recent anti-cancer treatment, you are shivering, unusually weak and “just not right”, but the thermometer is within your usual range.
The safer response
Call the 24-hour treatment number now and lead with the sudden change and recent treatment.
Give the temperature reading but do not present it as proof that there is no infection.
Follow the team’s assessment and attendance instructions; do not wait until morning to see whether a fever develops.
Prepare before treatment
- Get the treatment-specific side-effect information, alert card and 24-hour advice number.
- Save the number in your phone and keep a visible copy for family or carers.
- Ask for the exact temperature limits and warning signs that apply to your treatment.
- Check what to do if you cannot take medicines, are vomiting or feel suddenly unwell.
Call rather than guess
- Contact the cancer team promptly about anything new, worsening, unusual or not controlled by prescribed medicines.
- Call if you suddenly feel very unwell even when your temperature is normal.
- Record the symptom, timing, temperature and medicines taken, but do not delay calling to complete a perfect record.
- Having few side effects does not mean treatment is failing, and severe effects do not mean it is working better.
Emergency help
- Call 999 for a life-threatening emergency such as severe breathing difficulty, loss of consciousness, a seizure or severe bleeding.
- For urgent concerns that are not a 999 emergency, follow your cancer team’s instructions or use the appropriate NHS urgent service.
- Do not try a home remedy, supplement or somebody else’s medicine without checking with the team.
A manageable next step
What you could do now
- Put the 24-hour treatment number in every carer’s phone today.
- Keep your alert card with you.
- When unsure whether to call, use the instructions your own team gave you.
Checked sources
Read the original guidance
We summarise carefully and link to the source so you can check the full, most current information. Sources were checked 9 September 2026.