County Durham Bowel Cancer Screeningreport, County Durham
Download (PDF 610.38 KB)Summary of report content
April 2017 is Bowel Cancer awareness month and Healthwatch County Durham (HWCD) took the opportunity to research the uptake of bowel cancer screening in the county to see why some eligible people were not taking part in the screening programme and if there was anything that could be done to encourage more people to participate.
A survey questionnaire was created with 593 responses gathered, 224 online and the remaining 369 through face to face interviews.
The survey asked people who had not completed the bowel screening test if there were any specific reasons. The main themes were that they were fearful or too embarrassed to do the test. Some people thought because they were “symptom free” they didn’t need to complete the test.
The report made the following recommendations:
• Consider enclosing disposable gloves into the kits which may encourage more people to take the tests.
• Awareness raising to make people aware that they can still be screened after the age of 74.
• Give advice to patients with other forms of cancer that it is still important to carry out the test, explaining they will not necessarily have had any tests for bowel cancer as part of their ongoing treatment.
• Provide clearer instructions and easy read as this may encourage more people to take the tests.
At the time of the publication there was no response to the report included.