The North East and North Cumbria (NENC) are leading the way in the use of Faecal Immunochemical Tests (FIT) within lower gastrointestinal (GI) fast track cancer referrals, according to the latest report from the North East Quality Observatory Service (NEQOS), published in October 2025. This progress has been driven by the Clinical Digital Resource Collaborative (CDRC).
The report highlights that 84.2% of lower GI fast track cancer referrals in NENC were accompanied by a FIT result, surpassing the national average of 82.1%. This achievement reflects the region’s continued efforts to enhance early diagnosis and streamline cancer referral processes through digital innovation and cross-organisational collaboration.
The CDRC is a partnership between Health Innovation North East and North Cumbria (HI NENC), CBC Health Federation, PRIMIS, and North of England Commissioning Support (NECS). The CDRC develops digital clinical resources that support safe, efficient, and standardised patient care across primary and secondary settings
By combining clinical insight with digital expertise, the CDRC helps healthcare professionals make better use of data and technology to improve diagnosis, streamline referrals, and enhance patient outcomes across the region.
The NCA Lower GI fast track referral form, created and distributed by CDRC, includes a mandatory field for FIT test results or an option to indicate if the test has been declined. This design ensures that key diagnostic information is consistently captured, helping to:
- Reduce delays caused by incomplete or rejected referral forms
- Improve communication between primary and secondary care
- Support faster and safer patient pathways
CDRC Programme Manager, Ben Mole added, ” The importance of standardised referral forms cannot be understated and is often under-valued. At CDRC, our teams spend considerable time liaising with our region’s service providers to develop pre-populated referral forms within EMIS and SystmOne on their behalf. All CDRC referral forms undergo a clinical review prior to publication; this review ensures that the included guidance and patient information is appropriate, relevant, and safe for clinical use.
“Implementing standardised referral forms across the region enhances the efficiency, accuracy and consistency of patient referrals – supporting healthcare professionals and improving patient care.”
Streamlining Referrals Across the Region
CDRC serves as the sole provider of NCA-approved fast track and urgent suspected cancer referral forms for the NENC region, ensuring consistency and quality across all participating GP practices and healthcare providers. The standardisation of these digital referral forms represents a significant step forward in optimising cancer referral workflows and supporting earlier detection of bowel cancer.
Ben continued, “Clinical Digital Resource Collaborative (CDRC) is a collaboration of expert clinicians based in the North East of England that develop NHS-owned digital clinical resources. CDRC develops resources directly within EMIS and SystmOne, to relieve the time burden of clinical teams and to support the delivery of gold standard patient care.
“These free at the point of use resources include data entry templates, clinical reports, patient recalls, protocols and patient safety alerts. ”
For more information about the referral forms or to access support, contact contact-cdrc@healthinnovationnenc.org.uk