Tom Gordon MP calls for urgent changes in bowel disease care

Harrogate and Knaresborough representative, Tom Gordon, used this week’s Prime Minister’s Questions to call for urgent improvements in IBD care – drawing on his own experience living with ulcerative colitis.

Speaking directly to Keir Starmer, the MP described waiting “over a decade” for his diagnosis and criticised the “postcode lottery” of care facing IBD patients across the country.

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Mr Gordon said: “I welcome the PM’s warm words but need action, but the IBD community needs action, not promises.

“As someone with lived experience as a patient, and a professional background in health policy, I’ve listened to the clinicians. They are clear: we need a National Clinical Lead to raise the bar.

“The IBD community has shown me enormous support. The least I can do is fight for consistent, high-quality care everywhere in the country.

“IBD Alliance UK have done vital work on this. Their 2026 framework should be applied as standard, and I will keep pushing until it is.”

The MP described waiting “over a decade” for his diagnosis and criticised the “postcode lottery” of care facing IBD patients across the country (Image: Supplied)

He added that care for IBD patients “often falls far short of the mark”, and his was a “fluctuating” condition that was not always visible.

The MP has called on the government to create the IBD Standard – a practical framework setting out high-quality care benchmarks for healthcare staff.

He also urged the appointment of a National Clinical Lead for IBD to help deliver the improvements.

The Prime Minister thanked Tom personally for sharing his lived experience of IBD and congratulated him on running the London Marathon in aid of Crohn’s & Colitis UK this year.

While he acknowledged that care for patients with IBD should be “high-quality and consistent” and committed to providing “further details” about the national schemes in place in due course.

You can read more here.