National Assembly for Wales

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:

1. Welcomes Bowel Cancer UK and Beating Bowel Cancer’s recent report highlighting early diagnosis and its ambition to improve survival rates for people affected by bowel cancer.

2. Recognises the brave contribution of bowel cancer patients in Wales to raising awareness of the disease and of the healthcare professionals to improving outcomes in the face of increasing demand for diagnosis, within the constraints of the existing service.

3. Recognises bowel cancer as the second biggest cancer killer in Wales, the effect early diagnosis has on survival rates and the importance of encouraging the public to take up their bowel screening opportunities as uptake rates have fallen by 1 per cent in the last 12 months.

4. Welcomes the introduction of the simpler and more accurate faecal immunochemical test (FIT) in the bowel screening programme and its potential to improve bowel cancer survival rates.

5. Calls on the Welsh Government to deliver a bowel screening programme that can reach its full potential and to address issues around the:

a) proposed threshold of FIT to be introduced in 2019;

b) challenges that exist within endoscopy and pathology services to ensure FIT can be introduced optimally;

c) need to reduce the eligible screening age from 60 to 50.

Spotlight on Bowel Cancer in Wales - Early Diagnosis Saves Lives