Rising demand for endoscopy procedures and a lack of surveillance for those at highest risk of developing bowel cancer could lead to more deaths from the disease, says Bowel Cancer UK.
A report, Improving capacity, saving lives: Endoscopy in the UK, shows that despite the Government’s aspiration to diagnose people earlier, groups or individuals who need to undergo regular endoscopic procedures because they are at higher risk of bowel cancer (for example, because of a genetic condition or an inflammatory bowel condition) are not getting the timely surveillance they need. Bowel cancer is the UK’s second biggest cancer killer, and the overall five-year survival rate of those diagnosed is just over 50%. The Bowel Cancer UK report also highlighted the predicted increase in demand from awareness campaigns, screening including age extension, surveillance and demographic changes. To change this, Bowel Cancer UK is calling for: the Department of Health (DH) to ensure that data is collected consistently on people at genetic risk of bowel cancer, and to ensure that they are in an effective surveillance programme; patients waiting beyond six weeks for surveillance procedures to be included in the monthly diagnostic returns to ensure they are being seen in a timely manner and not overlooked; hospital Trusts and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) to fully support endoscopy teams in meeting increasing demand so they can provide a high quality, sustainable and timely service for all those who need it; the DH to ensure that there is clarity and consistency on what endoscopy test should be used and when; barium enema to be ruled out as a diagnostic test for bower cancer; the NHS Commissioning Board to ensure that no private endoscopy providers are commissioned unless they have full accreditation from the Joint Advisory Group (JAG) on GI Endoscopy.
