Community Links was commissioned in 2012 by a group of NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in North East London to undertake a research project on two different interventions to increase the uptake of bowel screening.
As a result of this work, we were commissioned by Newham CCG in 2015 to increase the uptake of bowel screening by calling the patients who haven’t returned their bowel kit (FOBT) for the previous year. As a result of this work, we were commissioned by Newham CCG in 2015 to increase the uptake of bowel screening by calling the patients who haven’t returned their bowel kit (FOBT) for the previous year. All GP practices in Newham are asked to participate in this programme and we have seen an increase in coverage from 35.5% in 2015 to 47.7% in 2018/19.
In 2018/19 we were commissioned by the West London Cancer Alliance (RM Partners) to run the same programme in South West and North West London. We called more than 48,000 patients from Brent; Croydon; Hammersmith & Fulham; Hillingdon; Hounslow; Kensington & Chelsea; Kingston; Merton; Richmond; Sutton; Wandsworth who didn’t return their bowel kit within the previous year. 23% of the patients that we talked to send back their bowel kit and 121 abnormalities were caught due to this intervention with one patient that we know of from Sutton who was diagnose in the early stages of bowel cancer. Due to the above results, this initiative has been extended for another year.
Since September 2019 and with funding from the SEL Cancer Alliance (King’s College Hospital), we have been running this initiative in the boroughs of Southwark, Greenwich, Lewisham, Bexley and Bromley, were we have contacted more than 12,000 patients already (results to be ready in August 2020).
Most recently, we have been commissioned by NCL Cancer Alliance (UCLH) to run the same programme in the areas of Barnet, Enfield, Haringey, Camden and Islington. It is estimated that we will call more than 6000 patients to encourage their participation in this live saving screening programme.
For our cancer screening programme, we work in partnership with GP practices in different areas of London. The data we use never leaves the NHS domain. For more information on GDPR please visit this website.
You can read the evaluation report for our bowel cancer screening service here (2012) and here (2017).