It's a disease which claims the lives of 16,000 people in the UK every year. Now a Gwent specialist treating bowel cancer says screening in Wales must improve. LIZZIE SMITH, JANE HELMICH and ANDY RUTHERFORD report

A LEADING Gwent medical expert says Wales is at least two years behind England in starting a new life-saving bowel cancer screening programme.

Later this year English people aged 60 to 69 will start being screened for bowel cancer. But a screening programme will not be ready in Wales until at least 2008.

Dr Miles Allison, a consultant gastroenterologist at the Royal Gwent Hospital, says the National Assembly cannot bring in a screening programme until it has trained enough specialist staff to carry out colonoscopies.

He said: "The training is behind England and more needs to be done to bring it up to standard.

"In April the Assembly is to invest a significant amount in this training but it needs to commit to doing this for the next three years."

In Britain bowel cancer is the second most common cancer in men and the third most common in women. It kills about 1,000 Welsh people a year.

If the cancer is caught early then nine out of ten sufferers will survive.

Screening involves sending away a stool sample, which is tested for signs of the cancer. The two per cent of people who show these signs will then be given a colonoscopy, where their bowel will be examined.

Dr Allison said he was pleased the Assembly had recognised more needed to be done to reduce the number of people dying from bowel cancer each year.

But he added: "We are going to need more money invested."

New research which showed Wales was not prepared for the new life-saving screening programme was presented at a meeting of experts recently.

The annual scientific meeting of the British Society of Gastroenterology, in Birmingham, was told there were not enough specially trained healthcare professionals to follow up the initial screening test.

Gwent politicians say they are concerned by the situation.

David Davies, MP and AM for Monmouth, said: "As I have said in the past it is appalling that one of the biggest killers in adults in that age group is being ignored by the Assembly health minister."

He added that it should have been started two years ago at the same time as England, and asked why Wales had a "second-class" service.

"The Assembly has got to stop trying to do things differently. They shouldn't sit there thinking about it and trying to do something different just because we are in Wales."

Last year, Torfaen AM Lynne Neagle raised the issue of Wales being behind England in another type of screening for the disease.

She urged Wales Health Minister Dr Brian Gibbons to review the system after it was revealed home-testing kits were being made available in England for the over-60s.

Ms Neagle, who chaired the all-party cancer group at the Assembly, said the home test could save many lives and called for a speedy decision in favour of Wales replicating the English model.