The event was extremely well attended with an impressive 15 Assembly Members (AM’s) turning up to the event - a quarter of all AM’s.
Sponsored by Dr Dai Lloyd AM, Chair of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, the event announced that IBD Wales will have a strategic role in supporting teams in the Health Boards to identify and address specific parts of services that need to be improved.
Led by Crohn’s & Colitis UK and in collaboration with the Welsh Association for Gastroenterology and Endoscopy (WAGE), IBD Wales will champion improvements to Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) services for the 15,000 people that are living with this life long and incurable disease in Wales.
People with IBD use and rely on gastroenterological services in Wales, with the condition primarily managed in secondary care. While standards of treatment and care for people with Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis in Wales have improved in recent years, they still fall behind the average for the rest of the UK.
IBD Wales will be looking at standards of care in early diagnosis and treatment as well as the on-going management of children and adult patients, which includes periods in which the disease flares up and symptoms become severe.
One of the first areas that the group will look at will be examining the role of IBD nurses and the quantity of patient access to specialist nurse support across Wales.
Pictured above (left to right), Professor Jaren Torkington (President of WAGE), Dr Dai Lloyd AM (Chair of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee), Rachel Owen (patient) and David Barker (CEO of Crohn's & Colitis UK)