GPs are now able to see bowel screening results electronically, thanks to improved communication between the Scottish Bowel Screening Programme and primary care.
In the past, doctors received paper copies of positive results but no information about patients who tested negative, or those who failed to respond to screening invitations.
Now details are delivered directly into the patient’s clinical record in the GP system and gives family doctors the ability to deliver health-promoting messages to non-responders and emphasise the benefits of early cancer detection.
Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer in Scotland after lung and breast cancer and every year almost 4,000 people are diagnosed with the disease. The Scottish Bowel Screening Programme invites all men and women in Scotland between the ages of 50 to 74 to be screened every two years and uptake is often lower than the target minimum of 60%. For every 650 people invited for screening, one cancer death will be prevented, a figure which equates to 150 lives saved across Scotland.
