Between 2002 and the NHS re-structure in 2013, SPH provided commissioning and public health support and advice to the commissioners of all cancer and non-cancer screening programmes across one region, including nine cancer screening programmes, two Diabetic Eye screening programmes and one Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm screening programme. SPH also supported all antenatal and new-born screening programmes in up to four NHS hospital trusts over an 11-year period.
The types of activity that SPH undertook for this work included:
- Supporting commissioners to meet the requirements and standards of national and local service specifications
- Ensuring that all screening programme contracts are monitored regularly and action plans implemented where necessary to recover performance
- Providing public health advice and expertise to commissioners and screening programmes about national and local policies, standards and pathways
- Co-ordination of all relevant service providers along the screening pathway to support performance management of programmes
- Identifying differences in access to screening programmes and developing actions to address them
- Responding to enquiries from stakeholders
- Participating in the investigation of serious untoward incidents and putting systems in place to ensure they are not repeated
- Identifying and disseminating best practice
