Bowel Cancer Screening Unit

The bowel cancer screening kit can save your life. Put it by the loo. Don't put it off

Bowel Cancer Screening Unit

The Bowel Cancer Screening unit is part of the Trust's Endoscopy unit. Bowel Cancer Screening involves having tests to check if you have or are at risk of bowel cancer.

Why we offer bowel cancer screening

We offer screening to detect bowel cancer when it is at an early stage in people with no symptoms. This is when treatment is more likely to be effective. Screening can also find polyps. These are abnormal clumps of cells in the bowel. Polyps are not cancers, but may develop into cancers over time. Polyps can be easily removed, which reduces the risk of bowel cancer developing.

Regular bowel cancer screening reduces the risk of dying from bowel cancer. For more information on taking part in bowel screening read NHS bowel cancer screening: helping you decide (FIT)

Government strategy is to reduce the invite age for screening to 50 by 2025. We currently invite people from age 50, to read the full story from 29 November 2024.

How to use a bowel cancer screening kit

Using your bowel cancer screening kit

The FIT aid tool is available to request as an adaptation which makes the standard FIT test more accessible. The FIT aid tool has a channel that enables the sample to be guided into the bottle, as well as a stand that holds FIT tube steady to help those with manual dexterity issues. The FIT aid tool can be requested by calling 0800 7076060.

Accessible step by step guide using the FIT aid tool

How to use the bowel cancer screening kit in English, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Farsi, Gujarati, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi and Urdu and British Sign Language

Colonoscopy Appointments

Face to Face Clinics

Please try to attend your appointment alone, although one carer, friend or relative can attend as support. Please bring with you a list of any current medications.

Colonoscopy

If patients are assessed as suitable for a colonoscopy they will be given an appointment during the clinic appointment.

Please try to attend your appointment alone, although one carer, friend or relative can wait in the department during a patients appointment. Alternatively, a member of staff will telephone to confirm when the patient is ready to be collected from the department.