In this first part of a special issue, the true costs of constipation to the NHS are revealed by a survey carried out by the RCN’s Continence Care Forum. Brenda Poulton and Sue Thomas detail the amount of district nursing time spent on dealing with constipation and show how it could cost the NHS as much as £810,000 each year in nursing time alone

Although rarely life threatening, constipation can be a cause of misery and discomfort for people suffering with it. In its more extreme form, faecal impaction, it is a distressing and embarrassing condition which, left untreated, may result in hospital admission. The causes of constipation are varied and the underlying reasons often poorly understood but, regardless of the cause, constipation impacts upon a person’s physical, psychological and social well being, as Jane Winney shows on pages 24-27.