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Public Health Activity Report 2021 published

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We in the National Screening Service Public Health team are committed to demonstrating our  commitment to the three interim NSS goals of trust, involvement and governance. The key achievements made during 2021 are set out in our first-ever annual activity report, available here.

Within the context of the overall NSS goals, we have identified our goals which include;

  • addressing inequities in screening 
  • improving the quality of the programmes 
  • improving population health 

How has equity in screening been addressed?

We have been identifying and addressing health inequalities in our work for some time. Some key achievements from 2021 are:

 What improvements have been made to the quality of the programmes?

We have focused on ensuring a systems approach to strengthening quality assurance (QA) in NSS and to the development of a QA policy framework during 2021. This work will make a significant contribution to future work.

We have also contributed to an information governance project which saw the development of a high-level implementation plan and recruitment of a new member of staff to take this work forward.

A key success for us has been the progression of the Patient and Public Partnership (PPP) strategy. During 2021, we ensured marginalised communities were represented through regular recruitment to the PPP panel; development of an operational plan; identifying permanent structures and developing a PPP framework; supporting tools and templates.

What is the Public Health team doing to improve population health?

We have made contributions to improving population health across the following key projects during 2021:

  • Cervical cancer elimination
    o We established a collaborative group to take elimination of cervical cancer strategic actions forward
  • Piloting of an information hub
    o The hub embeds the patient voice through the application of new and standardised, quality-assured processes into NSS communications
  • Health promotion activities
    o We have developed a range of factsheets, easy-read, and translated content for audiences; delivered a wide range of education and training sessions; and partnered widely with key stakeholders
  • Access officer roles
    o We provide assistance and guidance to people with disabilities to access screening services. Some of the ways we do this are through the creation of accessible online content, communications and information materials. 

Further details on these projects are available in the report

What’s next?

We are looking forward to progressing many of the projects described above, as well as the following:

  • Assisted decision making
  • Patient reported experience measures (PREMS). You can read more about this here
  • Relationship with the National Screening Advisory Committee 
  • Transfer of HPV immunisation data to the cervical screening register  

To find out more

If you would like more information on our work, please email publichealth.support@screeningservice.ie

By Pheena Kenny, Public Health Strategy and Development Manager

 

 

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