Milos Jankovic

“There are two cases that have recently come to my attention within the Cardiff area where patients have been diagnosed with Barrett's, lost to follow-up and have gone on to die from oesophageal cancers”

“There are inadequate processes in place to address this lacuna, particularly in primary care where a patient may not be a regular attender”

“GPs frequently recall their patients with known, chronic issues such as asthma & diabetes, and there is a process for recalling women for smear tests for example, however Barrett's does not currently benefit from such a recall exercise/audit, even though it is well-established to be a pre- cancerous condition”

“When prescribing drugs such as omeprazole or other PPIs for symptoms which may relate to Barrett's, there is no prompt for GPs to consider whether the patient hits the relevant red flags which may benefit from endoscopy rather than a course of medication, or whether they have previously been diagnosed with the condition and ought to be under surveillance”