The English Cervical Screening Programme is fully state-funded and provided as a core part of the National Health Service. A formal external quality assurance (QA) programme has been in place since around 1998. Since 2013, the programme management and QA function has become the responsibility of Public Health England, an operationally autonomous executive agency of the Department of Health. A national review of the external QA programme has been ongoing since April 2014 following an external independent review (1).
The presentation will give examples of the comprehensive approach to cervical screening QA in the English Cervical Screening Programme and the new arrangements for QA in place from April 2016.
Examples of the results achieved by the QA of cervical screening programmes will be discussed.
Robust quality assurance mechanisms are an essential requirement of implementing and running high quality cancer screening programmes.
(1). Bentley C, External Review of Quality Assurance for NHS Screening Programmes, Public Health England, Jan 2015, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-screening-programmes-external-review-of-quality-assurance-services