People with IBD not receiving services and care they need, despite hard work of clinical teams

The 2014 IBD Audit conducted by the Royal College of Physicians finds that services are failing to meet agreed minimum standards due to a lack of prioritisation by Clinical Commissioning Groups, health boards and trusts.

Since 2006, the IBD Audit has benchmarked health care and services for the estimated 300,000 adults, young people and children living with IBD against IBD Standards, developed and endorsed within IBD community, that set down what high quality care should look like.

This year's audit found:

• Significantly more IBD services have some IBD nursing provision than in 2006, rising from 56% to 86%
• Greater provision of specialist transition support for children moving from children's to adult services
• Over 90% of services now have some form of multidisciplinary meeting to discuss complex IBD cases
• Two‐thirds of services are participating in research
• Increased levels of participation in the national pouch registry.

However, there are still critical areas for progress:

• Nearly 40% of services are still falling short of minimum numbers of IBD Nurses
• Just 12% of IBD services had clear links to psychological support for adults with IBD
• Only 4 in 10 services routinely carried out basic nutritional risk assessments, despite the high incidence of malnutrition with IBD
• There has been a reduction in the number of services able to see someone with IBD experiencing a relapse within 7 days since last year
• Variable provision of pain services for inpatients
• Few services involving patients in service planning
• Limited availability of formal education sessions for patients and their families; and disappointingly few services

Crohn's & Colitis UK are calling on the NHS to prioritise and implement our IBD standards

Call to action: Campaign for better quality and access to IBD services

Over the coming months Crohn's & Colitis UK, working with the IBD community, will be leading the development of a UK-wide strategy for IBD to drive up the quality and increasing access to services for people living with IBD. This strategy will aim to ensure that IBD health services are adequately resourced, commissioned and working to defined quality standards.

Email ppr@crohnsandcolitis.org.uk to receive updates on our campaigns to improve the lives of people with IBD across the UK and learn how you can support our work.

The IBD Standards were drawn up by ten influential patient and professional organisations, including Crohn's & Colitis UK, the British Society of Gastroenterology, Royal College of Nursing, UK Clinical Pharmacy Association and Primary Care Society for Gastroenterology. The IBD Standards mandate core aspects of good quality care.