3. Will the Minister provide an update on the availability of faecal calprotectin tests in primary care settings in the Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board area? OQ58689

Making the faecal calprotectin test available to all GPs in Wales is a key action for the inflammatory bowel disease programme. Good progress is being made in the Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board area, as well as in other health boards across Wales.

Diolch, Minister. You and I both joined the Crohn's and Colitis UK launch of their new campaign 'Cut the Crap' last week, and we heard testimonies from those who are living with Crohn's, and overwhelmingly they stressed the importance of an early diagnosis. Last week, I also reached out to my residents and my constituents on social media and asked them to share any of their experiences of diagnosis, support and treatment, and, again, overwhelmingly people spoke about how they had faced misdiagnosis, with one woman saying that it actually took her 30 years before she found out that she had Crohn's disease. In order to make this better for people, we do need to ensure that healthcare professionals are given the tools to identify the symptoms of Crohn's and colitis, and access to the appropriate tests to avoid that misdiagnosis. So, Minister, what support can be given to GPs, in particular, in recognising the symptoms of Crohn's and colitis when people first come to see them? 

Thanks very much, Sarah, and thank you for attending that event last week, which I thought was very useful. The Royal College of General Practitioners have funded an inflammatory bowel disease spotlight project, and that happened between 2017 and 2022. This produced really useful resources for those people in primary care, and those resources are still available on the royal college of GPs' website, and are also available on the Crohn's and Colitis UK website. I think they included a number of checklists, pathways and presentations aimed at primary care. So, I would encourage GPs and teams to use those resources. One of the other things that I thought was useful from the event was that they have their own symptoms checker, so you can check if you've got these symptoms. One of them—who knew—if you get up in the middle of the night to go for a poo, that's not normal. My mum will be disgusted that I'm talking about poo in the Chamber, but I think it's really important we start talking about these things. 

Faecal calprotectin tests are a really effective way of diagnosing irritable bowel syndrome, or the need for further examination for things such as Crohn's and colitis, which I know you've just been discussing. IBS is common, affecting up to 25 per cent of the UK population and, in general, it can be managed in primary care. However, as the symptoms can be difficult to differentiate from inflammatory bowel disease, many patients are still referred and account for 28 per cent of gastroenterology appointments—I've been practising that word all morning. These tests can help reduce these referrals by differentiating between the two conditions. Calprotectin is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in adults with a recent onset of lower gastrointestinal symptoms for whom a specialist assessment is being considered and when cancer is not suspected. But, in the Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board, 38 per cent of those waiting for treatment on gastroenterology are waiting over 36 weeks for treatment, and 831 are waiting over a year for treatment. Therefore, what steps is the Minister taking to ensure that primary care settings are making more use of those tests where relevant, and what engagement have you had with stakeholders regarding that? 

I think shining a spotlight on this is really important. That's one of the ways to make sure that GPs know about the resources that are available so that they can look for those symptoms and just be more aware. So, I think that's really important. And, as you say, we've got to differentiate between the two conditions, and it's really important. I think it's worth saying that the kind of bowel screening programme is slightly different, so we just need to make sure that people understand that there is a different approach going on here, and the bowel screening programme is being hugely successful. We've seen the uptake in that improve considerably. But this is slightly different and it's something where I think the focus needs to be on GPs looking out for those symptoms.