Bowel Cancer

The National Bowel Screening Programme generates 3.3million results per year. It is possible for most practices to arrange to receive the results electronically. This article explains how.

We get numerous queries about patients who do not return their bowel screening letters. How you deal with these is a practice judgement but options include:

Entering into the computer history
Flag the record (computerised post-it) so next contact with Primary Care Team patient will be reminded
Send a letter to the patient from surgery. This may be worth a GP signing. You can download a Bowel Cancer Screening Template letter from here

Electronic Communication of Results

Nearly three million individual result letters were sent from BCSS per year to practices. After consultation with the GPC and the RCGP the Bowel Cancer Screening System (BCSS) announced that Faecal Occult Blood test (FOBt) result messages can now be sent electronically to GP practice systems.

Practices may choose to receive electronic result messages in place of, or as well as, hard copy results letters. Abnormal results sent electronically will always be accompanied by a hard copy letter in confirmation.

The FOBt “results” that are sent in this way are correctly SNOMED CT coded by the NHS CFH central server before they are sent to the GP Practices. GP practices do not need to re-code them when importing into the patient’s records. The SNOMED CT codes are as follows:

- 375211000000108 Normal
- 375241000000109 Abnormal
- 384241000000100 Incomplete participation
- 375121000000106 Spoilt
- 373251000000108 Non response

Please note that this communication facility does not alter the way the Bowel Cancer Screening Programme is working. There are no new duties required of the GP practice. Receiving FOBT results electronically is simply an alternative that GP practices can choose either instead of or as well as receiving results by post. Of the practice systems in use, the following are, compatible: