Plans to make bowel disease test available in 2025

A Freedom of Information request revealed the test could be available to general practitioners in the island by the end of the year

Jersey doctors could be able to send patients for a test to check for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) later this year.

The test - known as faecal calprotectin testing - can show the difference between inflammatory and non-inflammatory bowel disease and is already in use in the UK.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request revealed plans by the island's health department to make the tests available to doctors in Jersey by the end of the year.

Once in place, patients with symptoms suggestive of IBD would be referred for a faecal calprotectin test by their GP and, if positive, a colonoscopy would be arranged, a response to the FOI request revealed.

In its guidelines, observed by Health and Care Jersey, the British Society of Gastroenterology recommends using faecal calprotectin testing to help differentiate between inflammatory bowel disease like Crohn's and ulcerative colitis and non-inflammatory bowel diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome.

The guidelines, published earlier this year, aim to promote the use of the national primary care diagnostic pathway for lower gastrointestinal symptoms to 'enhance diagnostic accuracy and timeliness', according to the British Society of Gastroenterology.