Back our call for early diagnosis

We want to ensure that everyone with symptoms of Crohn’s and Colitis, regardless of their background and wherever they live, receive a diagnosis without delay. But we can’t do this alone. Find out how you can back our campaign.

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Every year, 25,000 people are diagnosed with Crohn’s or Colitis.

However, we know that more than a quarter have been waiting for a diagnosis for over a year. Nearly half end up in A&E while they wait.

Too many people brush aside symptoms, such as diarrhoea, stomach pain, and blood in stools, because they don’t think their symptoms could be linked to a long-term and debilitating condition such as Crohn’s or Colitis. There is a misconception that you must be severely ill or have continuous symptoms. But people risk severe illness and emergency surgeries if they continue to ignore their symptoms.

Delays to treatment affects people’s ability to continue education and work and narrows their treatment options while increasing their risk of being hospitalised or needing emergency surgery. Treating each patient with Crohn’s and Colitis now costs the NHS as much as treating those with cancer or heart conditions.

Yet despite clear patient need, increased clinical risk and rising costs to the NHS, improving the diagnosis of Crohn’s and Colitis remains at the bottom of the health agenda.

That’s why we have launched our public facing awareness campaign, encouraging people to get checked using our online symptom checker and contact their GP. We are working collaboratively with healthcare professionals and leaders to improve awareness and diagnosis of the conditions.

But we need your help too.

We are asking you to listen to people with Crohn’s or Colitis in your community and back our call for early diagnosis. We need three steps to achieve early diagnosis of Crohn’s and Colitis:

We need urgent action to raise public awareness of lower gastrointestinal conditions and their symptoms, so that people can get checked and take control of their health.
We need a national pathway for primary care to build confidence among the public and the healthcare profession so that people can be diagnosed and treated without delay.
We need clinicians to be able to prioritise endoscopies based on patient need and clinical risk, to get people diagnosed and on a treatment plan, rather than on an operating table.