NHS bowel cancer screening program – the real solution to help tackle the patient backlog
Did you know that bowel cancer kills 37 people in England every day? Yes, that’s what the astounding reports say. But the NHS bowel screening program, which is faecal blood testing followed by a colonoscopy, can reduce the number of deaths and the patient backlog due to COVID-19. The program is being expanded to include everyone between the ages of 50 and 59. This will happen gradually over the next four years, beginning in effect from this month. The UK is all about this raving news now. Let’s learn more from this blog post.
What is the NHS bowel screening program?
Bowel screening is initiated to detect cancer early or changes in the bowel that may lead to cancer. Regular NHS bowel cancer screening lowers the risk of dying from the disease. The fourth most common type of cancer is bowel cancer. Screening can help to prevent bowel cancer or detect it early when it is easier to treat.
A FIT or faecal immunochemical test home test kit is used to collect a small sample of poo and send it to a lab. This is examined for trace amounts of blood indicating polyps, which are intestinal growths that are not real cancer but may eventually develop into cancer in the future.
If the test reveals anything unusual, the individual may be asked to go to the hospital for additional tests to confirm or rule out cancer. The NHS initiates its people not to wait to have a screening test if they have symptoms of bowel cancer at any age, even if they have recently completed an NHS bowel cancer screening test kit.
The need of the bowel screening program
According to new NIHR-funded research, the backlog of patients waiting for tests as part of the NHS bowel screening programme could be addressed by increasing the threshold at which patients are invited for more in-depth investigations.
Everyone of a certain age is invited to use a home kit that tests the amount of blood in their faeces as part of the NHS bowel cancer screening programme. Those with a faecal blood test result above a certain level are invited for a colonoscopy, but two factors – the COVID-19 pandemic and the introduction of a lower screening invitation age – have resulted in a higher demand for colonoscopy appointments, resulting in a patient backlog.
Because of the COVID pandemic, some NHS bowel screening programs have been suspended or are less likely to be used by patients. This, combined with the reduction in the age at which people are invited for screening from 60 to 50, means that the demand for colonoscopy appointments is higher than usual.
“There have been inevitable delays in screens as a result of the pandemic,” said lead author and Professor of Cancer Screening at Queen Mary University of London Stephen Duffy, “but the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme is recovering well.” Due to the age extension, there are still pressures. If the programme must be modified to accommodate the limited availability of colonoscopy, our findings suggest that changing the FIT threshold may be the most practical option.”
Although the NHS is currently making good progress on the backlog, it still plagues the majority of the sector, which means that adapting protocol and making sacrifices is sometimes the only way to maintain a relatively steady flow of patients working their way through various services.
This comes after it was discovered that bowel cancer screenings are at an all-time high due to the late Dame Deborah James’ work, and the NHS announced that FIT kits will be available to nearly one million more people in a major expansion.
Conclusion
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