Bowel cancer screening

NHS bowel cancer screening checks if patients have bowel cancer. It's available to everyone aged 60 to 74 years.

Patients use a home test kit, called a faecal immunochemical test (FIT), to collect a small sample of poo and send it to a lab. This is checked for tiny amounts of blood.

If any patient does not complete their bowel cancer screening, you will receive a notification by the lab. If this happens, please file the results with a comment and send patient Accurx: Bowel screening test not done.

In cases where patient cannot read or write, task Care Coordinator to contact patient via telephone to discuss the importance of having the test and to give them information on how to do the test.

If patient has expressed they do not wish to be screened, we need to update their Emis records with appropriate read codes such as Bowel cancer screening declined and Advice given about bowel cancer screening programme.

FIT tests

If these are abnormal, they should be allocated to a GP who is working on the SAME day. These results should not wait for the GP who ordered it to come back to work - it can be reviewed by any GP if required.