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<p>The Department continues to take steps to improve early diagnosis for all cancers,
which encompasses bowel cancer, and in all areas, including Stockport and Greater
Manchester. The Department is working jointly with NHS England on implementing the
Delivery Plan for Tackling the COVID-19 Backlog of Elective Care, which includes plans
to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to help drive up and protect
elective activity, including cancer diagnosis and treatment.</p><p>NHS England is
working to meet the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS), which sets a target of 28 days
from urgent referral by a general practitioner or screening programme to patients
being told that they have cancer, or that cancer is ruled out. To achieve this target,
NHS England has: streamlined bowel cancer pathways by implementing faecal immunochemical
testing (FIT) triage for patients in primary and secondary care settings; implemented
non-symptom specific pathways for patients; and opened community diagnostic centres
across England, prioritising this capacity for cancer services. The latest published
data from February 2024 shows FDS performance was 78.1% nationally. More specifically
to bowel cancer, the latest published data shows that at a national level, the number
of people diagnosed with bowel cancer has risen to 41,596 in 2021, compared to 37,702
diagnosed in 2019. Since the FIT kit was introduced into the bowel cancer screening
programme in April 2019, national uptake has increased from 59.2% to 67.8%. the latest
data for the North-West region shows that 64.3% of 60 to 74-year-olds completed their
bowel screening in the first quarter of 2023/24.</p><p>In 2023 the NHS England’s Help
Us Help You campaign urged people to take up the offer of bowel screening when invited,
and the screening offer for the bowel screening programme is being gradually extended
from age 60 down to 50 years old by 2025, ensuring more people are screened and potentially
diagnosed with bowel cancer at the earliest stage. NHS England is also now offering
routine preventative bowel cancer screening to people with Lynch syndrome, with 94%
of people on average receiving the test between 2021 and 2023, up from 47% in 2019.</p>
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