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Cervical Screening Pilot Improvement Projects

Improving Cervical Screening Coverage

In 2019, the NHS released the Long-Term Plan, outlining the ambitions to improve patient care over the next ten years; including diagnosing cancer early. The Cervical Screening Programme aims to reduce the incidence and mortality from cervical cancer people aged 24.5 to 64. Due to the highly mobile population and being more ethnically diverse with pockets of deprivation, London continues to have the lowest rates of uptake and coverage of the Cervical Screening Programme in the country.

Primary Care Networks (PCN) play a vital role in delivering the plan and supporting the system wide improvements to meet the national ambitions; although it is acknowledged that there is a significant difference in the investment available for general practice, which has continued to decline over the years. PCNs across London were charged with improving uptake of the Cervical Screening Programme and completed pilot projects aimed to test out the feasibility of interventions and tackle barriers to engagement for targeted communities which include:

• People with learning disabilities
• People from the Orthodox Jewish community
• People from Romanian and Bengali communities
• People who have never attended for a cervical screen
• People who are at least 6 months overdue a screen

 

10 PCNs submitted project proposals in September 2019, however all projects suffered delays and one PCN dropped out due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The remaining 9 PCNs have now submitted reports on their improvement projects in their chosen targeted communities. These reports present an opportunity for all PCNs to role out relevant improvement projects, learn how to better tackle local health inequalities and spread and share learning from communities of practice (as suggested in the PCN DES).

Download the final joint Pilot report and presentations here:

2022 PCN Pilot Final Report
2022 PCN final report presentation
2020 PCN pilot November update
2019 PCN pilot call for proposals

Download the following individual PCN pilot project reports here:

1. Harrow East PCN Cervical Cancer Screening Pilot Report
2. North Camden PCN evaluation report
3. Kentish Town PCN evaluation report
4. Harrow East PCN evaluation report
5. Chessington PCN evaluation report
6. Beckenham PCN report
7. Streatham PCN evaluation report
8. Springfield park and Hackney PCN evaluation report

For more information on any of these pilots, please contact  england.ypa@nhs.net