Table 2.
A breakdown of costings for testing done on the two-week-wait pathway for suspected lower gastrointestinal cancer using the unit costings determined by the NHS National tariff. This analysis excludes any biopsy costs which were found to be comparable between the two cohorts (Table 1).
| Unit cost (£) | 2015 cohort (n) | Total cost (£) | 2016 cohort (n) | Total cost (£) | |
| Colonoscopy | 403 | 475 | 191,425 | 795 | 320,385 |
| CT | 100 | 213 | 21,300 | 316 | 31,600 |
| OGD | 341 | 115 | 39,215 | 132 | 45,012 |
| CT colonography | 196 | 104 | 20,384 | 54 | 10,584 |
| Flexible sigmoidoscopy | 310 | 20 | 6,200 | 29 | 8,990 |
| MRI | 163 | 20 | 3,260 | 8 | 1,304 |
| Total cost of tests | 281,784 | 417,875 | |||
| Cost of tests per referral | 424.37 | 438.02 |
CT, computed tomography; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging; OGD, oesophagogastroduodenoscopy.