Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the number of patients with suspected (a) Crohn’s disease and (b) ulcerative colitis waiting over 18 weeks to receive a diagnosis.

Cutting waiting lists is one of the Government’s top priorities. We are making progress on tackling the longest waits, to ensure patients get the care they need when they need it.

Diagnostic checks are a key part of many elective care pathways. Our ambition is that 95% of patients needing a diagnostic check receive it within six weeks by March 2025. We are working together with NHS England to increase diagnostic capacity as quickly as possible, including for patients with suspected Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, through the continued rollout of community diagnostic centres (CDCs).

As of November 2023, there are 136 CDCs currently operational that have delivered over five million additional tests since July 2021.

In addition, the Getting it Right First Time programme has launched a set of ‘Further, Faster’ pilots in July to support groups of trusts to accelerate progress on outpatient transformation, including gastroenterology. The pilots aim to accelerate service transformation across a range of specialities. Within gastroenterology, the pilots are driving forward interventions such as the introduction of Patient Initiated Follow Up, which can be beneficial for patients with chronic conditions like inflammatory bowel disease.