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<p>The Department is taking steps to achieve the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS),
which aims to ensure people with cancer or suspected cancer, including lower gastrointestinal
(GI) cancers, are diagnosed or have cancer ruled out within 28 days of referral. The
Department is working jointly with NHS England on implementing the delivery plan for
tackling the COVID-19 related backlogs in 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>To achieve the FDS target
specifically, NHS England has implemented a timed pathway for lower GI cancer, by
requiring faecal immunochemical testing (FIT) for patients in primary and secondary
care settings on a suspected lower GI cancer pathway. FIT testing prevents patients
from having unnecessary colonoscopies, freeing up capacity for these procedures and
ensuring the most urgent symptomatic patients are seen more quickly. Across 2022/2023
the proportion of lower GI referrals with a related FIT test rose from 24% to 69%.</p><p>NHS
England is also implementing non symptom specific pathways for patients who present
with non-specific symptoms, or combinations of non-specific symptoms, that can indicate
several different cancers, including symptoms that may indicate lower GI cancers.</p><p>In
addition, at the 2021 Spending Review the Government awarded £2.3 billion to transform
diagnostic services from 2022 to 2025, most of which will help increase the number
of community diagnostic centres (CDCs) up to 160 by March 2025, prioritising CDCs
for cancer services. General practice teams have also been given direct access to
tests like computed tomography scans, magnetic resonance imaging, and ultrasounds,
helping to cut waiting times and speed up the diagnosis of, or ruling out of, cancer.
This funding is also being used to expand endoscopy capacity within acute settings
and in CDCs.</p>
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