Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) services in Jersey

​​Request 728920961

Please see the below queries regarding inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) services in Jersey:

A

​Is faecal calprotectin testing available in primary care in Jersey to aid with the differentiation of irritable bowel syndrome and IBD as per NICE guideline DG11?

B

Is there a clinical pathway for patients with suspected first presentation of IBD in Jersey? If so, what are the referral criteria for this pathway? If not, how are patients with suspected IBD referred into secondary care?

C

In the last year, what proportion of patients with suspected first presentation of IBD were assessed in secondary care by a gastroenterologist within 4 weeks of referral as per NICE quality standard QS81?

D

In the last year, what proportion of patients with suspected first presentation of IBD had an endoscopy and received a diagnosis within 8 weeks of referral to gastroenterology as per quality standards suggested by IBD UK?

Response

A

Faecal calprotectin testing is not currently available in Primary Care at this time. There are plans to make this test available to General Practitioners (GPs) before the end of 2025.

B

Health and Care Jersey observe The British Society of Gastroenterology guidelines:

bsg.org.uk/news/inflammatory-bowel-disease-guideline-2025​

When GPs refer patients with symptoms suggestive of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a faecal calprotectin test will be requested and, if positive, an urgent colonoscopy is arranged.

C and D

It is not possible to identify those referred for suspected first presentation of IBD from central records held. There are no New Patient Clinics specifically for IBD / suspected IBD referrals. All new patients are seen in a general Gastroenterology Clinic for their initial assessment; follow-up appointments may be booked to a specialist clinic.

Review of all referrals to Gastroenterology would be required to identify the cohort in scope of this request, with subsequent interrogation of individual records and creation of the corresponding datasets requested also required. Scheduled Public Authorities are not obliged to create or manipulate data for the purpose of responding to Freedom of Information requests, and manual examination of records would exceed the timescales prescribed in the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014. Therefore, Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

Article applied

Article 16 - A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.​​​​