Crohn’s Disease and Colitis

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:36 pm on 30 January 2024.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:36, 30 January 2024

Llywydd, I thank Sarah Murphy for that. I think she makes a very important point in the final part of her supplementary question—that there is a great deal that needs to be done to help people understand the nature of their symptoms, and, of course, to help healthcare professionals who end up assessing those symptoms, because this is an area where there is genuine diagnostic uncertainty. Many of the things that turn out to be colitis or Crohn's disease look like all sorts of other conditions that aren't that at all. A general practitioner will always, as their professional training would lead them to, look first at the most obvious explanation for what they see in front of them, and that's not likely to be a Crohn's or colitis diagnosis. So, managing diagnostic uncertainty is an inevitable feature of this condition. But there is more that can be done to persuade, particularly young people—and, as Sarah Murphy said, Llywydd, these are conditions that emerge quite early on in people's lives—and that people recognise those symptoms for what they might be. And then, through the work of our national clinical lead, Dr Barney Hawthorne—recently retired and soon to be replaced—we have now in primary care in Wales consistent access to the key test that gives GPs the best understanding of whether or not this is some other condition they are seeing or whether it is someone who is suffering from Crohn's and colitis. We've put a lot of effort in recent years into advice that helps patients themselves to understand the condition and to manage the condition. And the work that is done by Crohn's and Colitis UK, in their earlier diagnosis campaign, and the other educative work they do, we know is of a genuinely excellent standard. And the way the Welsh Government intends to go on promoting better awareness, greater take-up of the help that is available, is to work closely with those third sector partners.

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