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Written question asked by James Clappison (Conservative) on Friday, 6 October 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 9 October 2006. It was answered by Ivan Lewis (Labour) on Monday, 30 October 2006 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Bowel Cancer Screening

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress has been made with the implementation of the bowel cancer screening programme since 1 April; what the timetable is for further implementation of the programme; how many people have been screened; and how many people she expects will have the opportunity to undergo screening in the next five years.
Answer

Good progress has been made in rolling out the national bowel cancer screening programme.The programme consists of five programme hubs across England who will invite men and women to participate in the screening programme, send out the faecal occult blood (FOB) testing kits, analyse the returned kits and send out results. Ninety to 100 local screening centres will provide endoscopy services for the 2 per cent, of men and women who have a positive FOB test result.The five hubs have been confirmed as:"Rugby—West Midlands and the North West - began operations in July 2006;""Guildford—Southern - began operations in September 2006;""St Mark's—London - begins operations in October 2006;""Gateshead—North East; and""Nottingham—Eastern."All five hubs will be operational by March 2007.In addition to the hubs, the first six local screening centres have now been confirmed. Wolverhampton and Norwich began sending out invitations in July 2006, and South Devon and Liverpool began sending out invitations in September 2006. St Mark's London is due to begin sending out invitations in October 2006, with St George's London following in November 2006. The other eight sites due to become local screening centres in wave one of the programme, in 2006-07, will be confirmed as soon as possible, when they have satisfied quality and capacity criteria.We will be writing to the new strategic health authorities (SHAs) shortly for them to bid for their local endoscopy units to become local screening centres as part of wave two of the programme in 2007-08. It is up to SHAs to decide where local screening centres should be located for the benefit of their own populations.Over 4,550 people have been screened since the start of the national programme.The bowel cancer screening programme is an ambitious project, and one of the first of its kind in Europe. Full national roll-out in England is expected by December 2009 and when fully implemented, around two million men and women in their 60s will be screened every two years. We are committed to implementing this important programme.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
91770; 451 c159-60W
Session
2005-06
Subjects
Screening Bowel cancer
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk