NICE advises GPs to offer home tests to all patients with bowel cancer symptoms to reduce waiting lists

GPs should offer all patients presenting with signs of colorectal cancer a faecal immunochemical test (FIT) to reduce the waiting times for a colonoscopy, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended in draft guidance.1

The current NICE recommendation is to offer FIT to people presenting to primary care with low risk symptoms suggestive of colorectal cancer, while people with high risk symptoms should be immediately referred to the suspected cancer pathway. However, patients often have lengthy waiting times for colonoscopy because of limited capacity.

NICE estimates that the recommendation should lead to 50% fewer referrals for urgent colonoscopies being made by GPs each year.

Mark Chapman, interim director of medical technology and digital evaluation at NICE, said, “We know the demand for colonoscopies is high, so recommending the use of FIT …