Bowel Cancer: Screening

(asked on 7th July 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to guidance from the British Society of Gastroenterology, what steps he is taking to promote and support the universal use of Quantitative Faecal Immunochemical Testing for symptomatic bowel cancer patients.


Answered by
James Morris Portrait
James Morris
This question was answered on 14th July 2022

The guidance from the British Society of Gastroenterology recommends that faecal immunochemical testing (FIT) can be implemented safely in primary care. New contractual requirements for Primary Care Networks to support early cancer diagnosis were published in March 2022. The updated requirements have been designed to support the delivery of specific commitments aligned to National Health Service planning guidance and improving referral practice, including the use of FIT.

In addition, the use of FIT to reduce demand on endoscopy capacity has been incentivised in the GP Contract for 2022/23. From 1 April 2022, practices are financially incentivised for the proportion of lower gastrointestinal faster diagnosis standard referrals accompanied by a FIT result, to ensure that 80% of referrals on this pathway are accompanied by a FIT result.

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