Does intensive multidisciplinary team intervention improve bowel cancer outcomes in Yorkshire. The Yorkshire Cancer Research bowel cancer improvement programme (YCRBCIP)

A hospital-by-hospital audit of bowel cancer care across Yorkshire will be fed back to clinical teams, who will then be retrained and re-audited in a repeated cycle to drive up standards. This matters because bowel cancer outcomes vary significantly between hospitals, even within the same region. The problem is not always a lack of good treatments—it is inconsistent application of best practice. The research team will link routine NHS datasets (Hospital Episode Statistics, cancer registrations, screening records, radiotherapy and chemotherapy data) with newly collected patient-reported outcomes and diagnostic profiles. This gives them a granular, real-world picture of where care falls short. If the programme succeeds, colorectal cancer care in Yorkshire will measurably improve above that of hospitals not taking part. The cycle—audit, feedback, education, re-audit—is designed to be self-sustaining, so improvements should persist beyond the project’s lifetime. The approach is not about discovering a new drug or surgical technique; it is about making sure existing tools are used optimally in every hospital, every time. If it works in Yorkshire, the same model could be rolled out to other regions and other cancers.