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City MP helps lead investigation into health screening problems

By 20 March 2019September 8th, 2022No Comments

Portsmouth South MP today leads a parliamentary hearing on the management of health screening by the Public Accounts Committee

Health screening is a way of identifying apparently healthy people who have a higher risk of developing a particular condition so that they can be offered treatment or management techniques at an earlier stage where this may improve the outcome.

There are currently 11 national screening programmes in England covering conditions ranging from breast, bowel and cervical cancers to fetal anomaly screening for Down’s Syndrome.

In 2018 two events raised concerns about the management of screening programmes. The Secretary of State informed the House of Commons of a ‘serious failure’ in the breast screening programme, and in the same year, a serious incident in the cervical screening programme. Between January and June 2018 43,220 women were not sent results letters. Capita was responsible for issuing letters and accepted full responsibility.

The National Audit Office (NAO) has found that none of the screening programmes it looked at met Government ‘standard’ targets.

Leading the investigation, member of the Public Accounts Committee Stephen Morgan MP said:

“Currently NHS England cannot identify when groups of people may not have been invited for screening. This is completely unacceptable. When the committee last looked at this issue we labelled the contract a shambles.

Some programmes fail to meet important performance targets including women receiving their cervical screening results within two weeks of their appointment and women receiving a breast screening appointment within 36 months of their previous appointment.

With targets not being met and mistakes being made, we must now see swift action.

This is an issue raised with me in Portsmouth so it was hugely helpful to press those responsible in Parliament”.

The Association of Directors of Public Health, who submitted evidence to the committee said:

“The report by the NAO demonstrates the unacceptable failure in a crucial Public Health Service.

Not only does this raise the issue of whether public monies spent on screening are being spent effectively, but the current performance is at risk of creating harm to patients, significant avoidable cost in treatment costs, investigations and potential litigation”.

The committee took evidence from Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England, Sir Chris Wormald, Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Care and Professor Sir Mike Richards, who is leading an independent review into the national screening programmes.

In Portsmouth, 66.8% of results letters for cervical cancer screening for women were received in the 14-day target. 67.5% coverage was achieved in the Portsmouth CCG area when the standard target is 80% for breast cancer screening.