- Accident and Emergency Department
- Acute Medicine
- Audiology
- Behçet’s Syndrome National Centre of Excellence
- Bereavement Services
- Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre
- Blood tests
- Bowel Cancer Screening
- Breast Screening
- Breast Unit
- Cancer Services
- Cancer Support Services
- Cardiology
- Care management
- Children’s Community Nursing
- Children’s Community Therapies
- Clinical Toxicology
- Community rehabilitation
- Community Rehabilitation Facilities
- Community Respiratory
- Community Ward D43
- Connected Palliative Care
- Continence
- Critical Care
- Dermatology
- Diabetes
- District nursing
- Ear, nose and throat
- Elderly Care
- Endoscopy
- Female Genital Mutilation Service
- FINCH Service
- Foot Health
- Gastroenterology
- General Surgery
- Gynaecological cancer
- Gynaecological Cancer – Genetic Testing
- Gynaecology
- Health Visiting
- Heart failure
- Homeless Team
- Imaging
- Immunology and allergy
- Infant Feeding Team
- Infection Control
- Integrated Care Services (iCares)
- Lung Health Checks
- Maternity
- Neonatal Unit
- Neurology
- Neurophysiology
- Nuclear Medicine
- Nutrition and Dietetics
- Orthotics
- Paediatric Allergy Service
- Paediatrics
- Pain Management
- Pathology
- Pharmacy
- Physiotherapy (Community Musculoskeletal) Service
- Plastic Surgery
- Post-Menopausal Bleeding Clinic
- Research & Development (R&D)
- Respiratory
- Respiratory Physiology
- Rheumatology
- Sandwell Sexual Health Services
- School Nursing
- Sickle Cell & Thalassaemia
- Speech and Language Therapy
- Stroke Care
- Tissue Viability
- Transition and Young People
- Trauma and Orthopaedics
- Urology
- Vascular Day Surgery
- Virtual Wards
- Volunteer Service
- Wheelchair services
- Young Parents Maternity Service
- Accident and Emergency Department
- Acute Medicine
- Audiology
- Behçet’s Syndrome National Centre of Excellence
- Bereavement Services
- Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre
- Blood tests
- Bowel Cancer Screening
- Breast Screening
- Breast Unit
- Cancer Services
- Cancer Support Services
- Cardiology
- Children’s Community Nursing
- Clinical Toxicology
- Community Rehabilitation Facilities
- Community Ward D43
- Connected Palliative Care
- Critical Care
- Dermatology
- Diabetes
- Ear, nose and throat
- Elderly Care
- Endoscopy
- Female Genital Mutilation Service
- FINCH Service
- Gastroenterology
- General Surgery
- Gynaecological cancer
- Gynaecological Cancer – Genetic Testing
- Gynaecology
- Health Visiting
- Homeless Team
- Imaging
- Immunology and allergy
- Infection Control
- Integrated Care Services (iCares)
- Lung Health Checks
- Maternity
- Neonatal Unit
- Neurology
- Neurophysiology
- Nuclear Medicine
- Nutrition and Dietetics
- Orthotics
- Paediatric Allergy Service
- Paediatrics
- Pain Management
- Pathology
- Pharmacy
- Plastic Surgery
- Post-Menopausal Bleeding Clinic
- Research & Development (R&D)
- Respiratory
- Respiratory Physiology
- Rheumatology
- Sandwell Sexual Health Services
- Sickle Cell & Thalassaemia
- Speech and Language Therapy
- Stroke Care
- Transition and Young People
- Trauma and Orthopaedics
- Urology
- Vascular Day Surgery
- Virtual Wards
- Volunteer Service
Bowel Cancer Screening
We participate fully in a national screening programme. Tests are available every two years to all men and women aged 56 to 74, with national roll-out to invite people aged 50 and over expected to be complete by the end of 2024. People who are over 74 can request a home-screening kit over the phone by calling 0800 707 60 60.
People in this age group will automatically be sent an invitation through the post, then their screening “kit” so they can complete the test in the comfort of their own home. Your GP will provide your contact details and it is therefore very important that they are kept up to date with any changes.
The screening initiative aims to detect bowel cancer at an early stage in people with no symptoms, when treatment is likely to be more effective.
If you wish to have your colonoscopy pre assessment appointment by telephone you can request this by calling 0800 707 60 60.
The screening is initially via a home test via a FIT (Faecal Immunochemical Test) kit which looks for hidden blood in stools. This does not diagnose bowel cancer, but the results will give an indication as to whether the patient is in need of further examination, which is done by a colonoscopy. A colonoscopy is a procedure in which a doctor uses a colonoscope or scope, to look inside your rectum and colon.
Bowel cancer screening can also detect polyps, which are abnormal growths that aren’t cancerous but may become do over time. They can be removed during a colonoscopy potentially preventing patients going on to develop cancer.
A colonoscopy clinic is run twice a week at City Hospital, twice a week at Sandwell Hospital and once a week at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham.
Services
Bowel Cancer Screening begins with a simple test that can be carried out at home using a kit that is sent to individual patients. If the test reveals anything unusual then further tests can be carried out in hospital by a consultant or specialist nurse.
City and Sandwell hospitals have a team of specialists who hold clinics for patients whose home tests have shown positive. Patients are assessed for their suitability for a colonoscopy – a tiny video camera on a thin flexible tube which is inserted into the back passage under local anaesthetic. This allows the consultant or specialist nurse to see directly if there are any abnormal growths.
A colonoscopy clinic is run once a week at City Hospital, twice a week at Sandwell Hospital and once a week at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham.
Bowel Cancer Screening Clinics
City Hospital
Pre-assessment clinics – Monday/Tuesday/Friday – mornings only
Colonoscopy lists – Monday/Tuesday – mornings only
Sandwell Hospital
Pre-assessment clinics – Monday/Wednesday/Thursday – mornings only
Colonoscopy lists – Wednesday – all day and Thursday – afternoons only
Queen Elizabeth Hospital
Pre-assessment clinics – Monday/Tuesday – mornings only, and Friday – afternoons only
Colonoscopy lists – Tuesday – all day and alternate Saturdays – all day.
Patient Information
Patient information videos
Please click on the link below to watch a film about how to use a bowel cancer screening kit.
Foreign language versions of the video are available in Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Farsi, Gujarati, Polish, Punjabi, Portuguese and Urdu.
Patient information leaflets
Having a colonoscopy – ML7176
Having a Flexible Sigmoidoscopy ML6090
MOVIPREP Laxative instructions (morning appointment) – BCS Version (ML5793)
MOVIPREP Laxative instructions (afternoon appointment) – BCS Version (ML5794)
Advice following a colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy without sedation ML5876
Enhanced Recovery After Colorectal Surgery ML6364
Bowel cancer patient personalised follow-up ML6219
Contacts
City Hospital:
Telephone: 0121 507 6002
Sandwell Hospital:
Telephone: 0121 507 3185
Queen Elizabeth Hospital:
Telephone: 0121 371 6993.
National freephone helpline:
0800 707 60 60 (for kit requests or other queries)