People with possible symptoms of bowel cancer will be offered home tests, as part of efforts to cut long waiting times for those who need hospital investigations.

Guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) says the £5 home tests – already offered to older adults as part of screening for bowel cancer – should now be offered routinely to those with possible symptoms of disease.

Nice said the changes should mean around 100,000 fewer people a year having to undergo colonoscopies, an invasive procedure to rule out cancer in the bowel, colon or rectum.

Currently, some patients are given the faecal immunochemical tests (FIT) but others are referred for hospital colonoscopies. Amid concern about long waiting times for the hospital procedures, health chiefs will today set out plans for the system to be changed.