Objective To evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of the York Faecal Calprotectin Care Pathway (YFCCP) and undertake a health economics analysis. The YFCCP has been introduced in support of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance DG11. It is designed to improve the sensitivity and specificity of faecal calprotectin (FC) in discriminating the irritable bowel syndrome from inflammatory bowel disease in primary care.

Design To prospectively evaluate the clinical outcomes at 6 months of the first 1005 patients entering the YFCCP. To develop a cost-consequence model using two comparators: one based on clinical assessment and the C reactive protein/erythrocyte sedimentation rate without using FC, and the second using single testing of the standard FC cut-off.

Setting North Yorkshire primary care practices.

Patients Primary care patients fulfilling NICE DG11.

Interventions The YFCCP.

Main outcome measures Clinical outcome measures from secondary care records.

Results The sensitivity and specificity of the YFCCP are 0.94 (0.85 to 0.98) and 0.92 (0.90 to 0.94), giving a negative and positive predictive value of 0.99 (0.98 to 1.0) and 0.51 (0.43 to 0.59), respectively.

Conclusions The YFCCP overcomes the challenges experienced with FC use in primary care, its efficacy matching initial NICE projections. It is readily incorporated into clinical practice. It should represent the framework on which to increase NICE DG11 implementation nationally.