Our Colorectal team recently met at the Imperial Hotel in Great Yarmouth for their annual ‘away day’ which gives them the opportunity to get together and talk about developments and the way forward.
This meeting takes place each year, with specialists from the multi-disciplinary team presenting, reviewing and reflecting on colorectal cancer services over the previous 12 months and highlighting innovations regarding service development.
Mr Kamal Aryal, Colorectal Cancer Lead, presented data from the National Bowel Cancer Audit Programme showing how the team have improved the service and he discussed the next steps to continuing to provide the best care for our patients.
Improved areas include surgery for rectal cancer, shorter length of hospital stay and better post-operative mortality figures.
There were other presentations on Lynch testing, stoma rate, enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS), straight to test (STT) and how to achieve waiting times in order to improve our colorectal cancer pathway further.
The team have been delivering a colon capsule endoscopy (CCE) service, which provides an alternative to a colonoscopy for suitable patients. The team has triaged and sent for CCE the greatest number of patients in the East of England since the Covid pandemic.
In addition to the updates around clinical developments, the meeting also gave an opportunity to thank Mr Roshan Lal for all his support and guidance as Trust Cancer Lead, and to thank Dr Matthew Williams, lead gastroenterologist, for his dedication and commitment to the service.