Alan, Director and Volunteer with Healthwatch Central Bedfordshire, shares his efforts in increasing Faecal Immunochemical Test (F.I.T) collections in Leighton Buzzard

If you are of a certain age you will be invited by The NHS to carry out a Faecal Immunochemical Test (F.I.T) by taking a stool sample and returning it for examination at a Pathology Lab to see if there is blood in the sample. If blood is found you will be invited to have a Colonoscopy, which will look for the reasons why there is blood in the sample. Some of the things that can cause a negative sample are, Diverticulitis, Polyps, wear and tear of the Bowels or Colon, of in some cases Bowel or Colon Cancer.

Your GP can also ask to provide a F.I.T sample if you have Bowel or Colon problems, and this will also be sent to a Pathology Lab for examination. But until recently Leighton Buzzard has been in the unenviable situation of only having one collection of these samples a week, potentially that sample could have been sitting in a GP Surgery refrigerator or up to 6 days.

In an attempt to rectify this situation I was asked by my Surgery Practice Manager and the Primary Care Network (PCN) to see if we could get at least one more collection a week. This proved more difficult than you would think, the request was turned down by the Integrated Care Cancer Board in October of last year.

Since then I have had a lot of conversations with the ICB, including them being advised that in at least one case the delay in getting a sample tested may have contributed to a patient being referred with suspected Bowel Cancer. At the beginning of February we were advised that there may be funding available for an extra collection per week, and it was confirmed that the funding for the extra collection had been approved by the ICB Finance Department in mid March. All that is left to do now is arrange for the day of the week for the courier to collect the sample, which is now being organised by the PCN.