News

We have successfully rolled out the Faecal Calprotectin pathway to 15 Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) across Yorkshire and the Humber. The pathway was implemented across the whole of the Humber Coast and Vale Health and Care Partnership in 2018 and was a first for the region and for the country.

The Faecal Calprotectin pathway helps GPs to make the difficult distinction between Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Inflammatory Bowel Disease. As many as 19 out of 20 patients presenting symptoms of these conditions are unnecessarily referred to secondary care while, for other patients, diagnosis can be delayed.

By preventing unnecessary, uncomfortable, and expensive colonoscopies and enabling the patient’s condition to be managed in primary care, CCGs using the pathway will see savings of approximately £220,000 per annum. This cost saving has been validated through an evaluation commissioned by us last year from the York Health Economics Consortium (YHEC).

The pathway is endorsed by NICE and Crohn’s Colitis UK and is on the Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) toolkit hosted by the Royal College of General Practitioners.

We have led the implementation of the Faecal Calprotectin pathway since 2015 in partnership with York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and have supported spread of the pathway to 73 CCGs across England as part of an AHSN Network collaborative programme. This enables systems to make the best use of NHS resources and deliver a better patient experience.

The project has now ended and the AHSN are not actively involved in spreading the pathway. However, resources are still available should CCGs and Trusts wish to implement the programme locally.

For more information please contact us