Written question asked by Stephen Pound (Labour) on Tuesday, 6 November 2018, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 12 November 2018. It was answered by Steve Brine (Conservative) on Wednesday, 14 November 2018 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.

Cancer: Screening

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the average number of colonoscopy procedures conducted by an endoscopist each year; and whether the commitment to increase the number of endoscopists in Health Education England's cancer workforce plan will be sufficient to deliver the new faecal immunochemical screening test.

Answer: NHS England and the screening centres have completed an assessment of screening endoscopy capacity, taking into account a number of factors including workforce. This will inform the implementation plan for rolling out the Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) into the Bowel Cancer Screening Programme. Health Education England is working with Public Health England and NHS England to continue detailed workforce planning to deliver national screening programmes such as FIT and ensure alignment with the national Workforce Strategy.

Secondary information