Eluned Morgan – 2022 Comments on Reducing Bowel Cancer Screening Age

The comments made by Eluned Morgan, the Welsh Minister for Health and Social Services, on 4 October 2022.

It is great to see the next phase of our plan to widen access to bowel cancer screening come into effect.

We have previously introduced the more user-friendly test and started inviting those aged 58-59. This next phase of the programme widens access to those aged 55-57.

This move will help us to identity more bowel cancer cases early and support improvement in survival rates.

I’m also pleased to see that more people are taking part in the programme and that the uptake rate now meets the expected standard.
In future, we plan to continue to optimise the programme by lowering the age range to 50 and increasing the sensitivity of the test until we come into line with UK recommendations.