States back cheaper bowel cancer checks
PARTICIPATION rates in bowel cancer screening could be published online in future, Health & Social Care president Heidi Soulsby has said, after the States backed a move towards a less invasive, more affordable method of screening.
Currently Health & Social Care offer sigmoidoscopy tests – which involve using a camera to check inside patients for growths or changes. This follows a 2015 resolution, which prescribed that this specific test would be used to check islanders aged between 60 and 65.
As well as being less invasive, the new style of checks would cost less than £327,000 a year to run, rather than £500,000.
There was some hesitation in the States, as the new resolution will allow HSC to change the tests in future, based on best practice.
HSC president Heidi Soulsby said it means they would be able to take advantage of future advances in medicine when deciding on the best test to carry out.
She also noted that it had been found that the less invasive test was more likely to be taken up by people from more socially-deprived backgrounds, so this would make the system more equitable.
