News
Latest news items added to the website
21 May 2013
Screening Matters Issue 13
The new issue (January - February 2013) of the UK NSC's Screening Matters newsletter is now available on the UK Screening Portal, with the latest screening policy information, as well as updates on the English national screening programmes and cross-programme work.
25 April 2013
CLIMB MCADD Conference - 29th June
The CLIMB MCADD Conference will take place in Northampton on Saturday 29th June 2013. The conference is focused on medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency (MCADD) and will include talks from specialist and family speakers. To book a place or for more information, please call CLIMB on 0845 241 2173.
11 April 2013
MCADD and Your Child leaflet and the new MCADD Parent Information page
MCADD and your child leaflet (NEW!)
This leaflet is to be given to families after the first contact with health care professionals (either their GP, paediatrician, midwife, health visitor or nurse specialist). It provides further information about MCADD, a step-by-step guide to how their child will be followed-up by health care professionals, answers to some common questions, a place to record their own questions and details for their MCADD team and sources of further information and support.
Hard copies are available by contacting uknewbornscreen@gosh.nhs.uk.
A new page dedicated to making the MCADD Parent Information more accessible is now available. This page has all the documents needed for MCADD families and some commonly asked questions about MCADD.
5 April 2013
Expanded newborn blood spot screening newsletter
The expanded newborn screening pilot is looking at whether blood spot screening can we extended to a further 5 very rare but very serious conditions.
Its April 2013 newsletter has just been published. It provides an update on the data collected by the project in terms of births, declines, screen positives, true positives and false positives.
28 March 2013
New edition of FootPrint published
The 9th edition of FootPrint is now available. This edition features a message from Dr Anne Mackie, Director of Programmes, UK National Screening Committee, on the changes that will take place to the screening programmes on 1st April 2013, an update on new UKNSPC and UK NSC publications, and a feature on the British Paediatric Surveillance Unit study on congenital hypothyroidism.
26 March 2013
Expanded newborn screening study - pilot extended
We are pleased to announce that the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) has provided funds to extend the expanded newborn screening pilot until 31st March 2014. This will allow the UK NSC to receive the full evaluation of the pilot and take a view on whether a full national roll out is appropriate beyond this point. The letter from Dr Anne Mackie, Director of Programmes at the UK NSC, confirming these arrangements can be downloaded from the expanded newborn screening website.
26 March 2013
Screening in the new NHS
by Dr Anne Mackie, Director of Programmes, UK National Screening Committee
The fundamental changes to health structures in England that come into force on 1 April 2013 represent a real opportunity to improve screening services in the long term.
For the first time, we will have clear national specifications for screening and a common understanding of what needs to be delivered by our services.
Monday, 1 April, is the day when the new organisations take on their full functions. The national screening teams will move out of the NHS into Public Health England (PHE), England's new national public health service.
On the same day, the new NHS Commissioning Board (NHS CB) will take up its full statutory duties and responsibilities, including the commissioning of screening services against new national service specifications.
These specifications can be found on the Department of Health website along with a detailed agreement that sets out how the NHS CB will drive health improvements. See http://www.dh.gov.uk/health/2012/11/sector-7a/
In the new world, the NHS CB will commission screening against these specifications while diagnostic and treatment services will be commissioned by Clinical Commissioning Groups and screening expertise will be embedded in the NHS CB's Area Teams (ATs).
Taken together, these are far-reaching changes that will impact on all of us involved in the commissioning and delivery of the NHS Screening Programmes.
PHE started to work in shadow form on 1 January and the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) has been working with the NHS CB to design and support the development of screening and immunisation teams that will ensure professional screening expertise is firmly embedded in the ATs.
Meanwhile, the UK NSC is undergoing a national restructure itself that will see the creation of regional cross-programme QA teams to quality assure local screening services.
It will take time to embed all these changes in the system. Patient safety will remain the overriding priority throughout this transitional period.
We are absolutely committed to maintaining continuity and will be communicating regularly during the transition process to keep everyone abreast of the changes. Importantly from a user and front line clinical perspective, the screening programmes will continue to look and work much as they have done in the past and the engagement with current clinical and user stakeholders will remain a priority as we transition.
All these national changes represent an exciting opportunity for screening, underpinned by a common understanding of what needs to be delivered and a national focus on improving the nation's health and wellbeing.
Thank you for your continued support and hard work as we move into this new world.
11 March 2013
New: Initial clinical referral standards and guidelines for CHT
The congenital hypothyroidism (CHT) initial clinical referral standards and guidelines have been published. These new standards and guidelines were developed in partnership with parents and healthcare professionals and have been endorsed by the British Society for Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes and the UK Newborn Screening Laboratories Network.
The standards and guidelines are available in hard copy from the Programme Centre. Alternatively, please see the Documents to support the CHT screening programme page to download the electronic file.
25 February 2013
Screening in the UK 2011-12: Policy Review
The UK National Screening Committee's annual report on Screening in the UK 2011-12 has now been published. As well as introducing the work of the UK NSC and explaining the concept of screening, it covers the UK NSC's policy development work during this period, highlighting the conditions which were reviewed and explaining why screening was or was not recommended.
During 2011-12, the UK NSC made 13 policy recommendations, from alcohol misuse screening in adults to screening for thalassaemia in newborns.
The report also covers the current state of screening in each of the 4 UK countries, providing a summary of all the national screening programmes and key achievements during the year.
11 February 2013
Screening in England 2011-12
The UK NSC's annual report on Screening in England 2011-12 has now been published on the Screening Portal. It gives a fascinating insight into the NHS screening programmes*, as well as providing an introduction to the role of the UK NSC and what screening is - and why it is different to other types of service in the NHS.
The report is broken into a number of themes to highlight the successes and challenges of screening using quotes, case studies, statistics and commentary:
- Screening is important
- Screening is driven by evidence
- Screening has a unique role in the NHS
- Screening involves choices
- Screening has an impact
The Screening at a Glance section also provides a 2 page snapshot of screening during 2011-12 in numbers.
* Note that this report does not cover the cancer screening programmes, which are managed separately.
