Director of Public Health Health Protection Assurance Report

Screening is a way of identifying apparently healthy people who may have an increased risk of a particular condition. The purpose of screening is to identify and intervene early to reduce potential harm.

There are 11 NHS national screening programmes available in England, which cover the life course.

Each programme is underpinned by rigorous quality assurance and monitoring arrangements to ensure that the target population benefit from the service and those individuals are not exposed to potential harms (e.g., failures to correctly identify individuals requiring further tests).

The screening programmes, commissioned by NHSE are:

• Cancer screening programmes (breast, bowel and cervical)
• Diabetic Retinopathy
• Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA)
• Antenatal and newborn screening programme

The most recent data for these screening programmes are for 2022.

Generally, coverage of the cancer screening programmes in North Tyneside is around the national average. There is variation at a GP level which reflects, though is not totally determined by, the social gradient, with GP practices serving more deprived areas having lower coverage rates. However, inequalities are also evident in certain population groups such as those with a Learning Difficulty. As cancer screening programmes report data at a local level this provides the opportunity for further identification of health inequalities.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on the cancer screening programmes, especially the breast screening programme, whereby mitigation measures greatly impacted service throughput. There has been a noted decline nationally in the cervical screening programme, particularly amongst younger women. Bowel cancer screening has shown a significant increase in uptake nationally and locally which is being attributed to the introduction of a more accessible test.

Uptake of the AAA in North Tyneside (not available at GP level) is below the national average. The national screening team are exploring this, and it appears to be an outlier considering screening rates across other programmes. The table below presents coverage for all the adult screening programmes and highlights the variation at a GP practice level of uptake.

Data for the Diabetic Eye Screening Programme is unavailable at a North Tyneside level. Though previous reports on this programme have highlighted the inequalities in the uptake of the service, with lower uptake amongst younger age groups and those from more deprived socioeconomic areas.

Table 1: Adult Screening Programme Coverage 2022

The Antenatal and Newborn screening programme covers six areas:

• Fetal anomaly (data not available at a local level)
• Sickle cell and thalassemia
• Infectious diseases in pregnancy
• Newborn infant physical examination
• Newborn hearing screening
• Newborn bloodspot screening

Newborn hearing screening coverage for North Tyneside is above the national standards.

Table 2: Antenatal and newborn screening coverage 2022 (quarter 1)