News

The Yorkshire & Humber Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) is proud to be working collaboratively with York Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust which has led to a research paper being published on the innovative Faecal Calprotectin Pathway.

The new pathway, which helps GPs make the difficult discrimination between irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), was developed by Dr James Turvill, Consultant Gastroenterologist at York Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr Turvill said: ‘’I have felt strongly that if we could harness the clinical utility of faecal calprotectin then patients would benefit. Working with a great team at York Hospital and the Yorkshire & Humber AHSN we have been able to realise this. The recent evaluation by our partners at York Health Economic Consortium has been really positive and further supports our continued roll out across the CCGs in the region and nationally.’’

Victoria Hilton, Programme Coordinator at the Yorkshire & Humber AHSN has been working closely with Dr Turvill on the programme and said: ‘’We are very proud to have this article published, it is a great opportunity for us to showcase the great work taking place in our region and for us to spread this innovative pathway to the rest of the UK’’

Use of the new pathway in the region has resulted in a 40-57 percent reduction in new hospital outpatients’ appointments and a 21-50 per cent reduction in colonoscopies. There are projected savings to each CCG of around 100,000 equating to a saving of £2.5 million across the Yorkshire & Humber region.

The Yorkshire & Humber AHSN has successfully supported the rollout of the new pathway across nine Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and 240 GP practices. A further nine CCGs are fully engaged with implementation plans in place and the new pathway is influencing national clinical guidelines.

IBS Affects 10-20 per cent of the population, half of whom will consult their GP with 79,000 new cases being diagnosed each year. IBD occurs much less commonly, being seen three per cent of the time.

As distinguishing IBS from IBD is difficult, as many as 19 out of 20 patients are unnecessarily referred to secondary care, which often includes an invasive colonoscopy.

The pathway was shortlisted for a HSJ award last November and has been shortlisted for a NICE Shared Learning Award in June 2018.