Cross Programme QA Group

Screening Quality Assurance Pathway and Glossary (version 1.0)

247KB
21/09/2010

The UK NSC Quality Assurance Pathway and Glossary are technical documents to help healthcare professionals ensure that screening programmes can be monitored and assured effectively.

These documents define key screening concepts in a way which allows the delivery of screening programmes to be assessed and compared. Accordingly, some of the terms used (such as ‘tested') have a specific meaning which is explained in the Glossary. Where reference is made to such terms in Screening Programme Standards and other documents, they are represented with a broken underline to indicate that the definition in the Glossary should apply.

Posted by: Christian Martin

Cross Programme Quality Assurance

The aim of quality assurance is to provide information to the public and professionals about the quality of screening programmes. Quality assurance and performance management are an integral part of all national screening programmes to ensure that all programmes achieve the highest possible standards.

In June 2008 a Cross Programme Quality Assurance group was set up with the aim to develop a quality assurance strategy for screening programmes in England to fulfil the requirements of RDsPH and UK NSC. The scope of this group covers all existing and new non-cancer screening NSC programmes. A defining feature of the group is to ensure that Quality Assurance arrangements should be once across programmes and not duplicated, thus providing increased efficiency and greater leverage than a QA system based on individual programmes. Where separate arrangements are needed, this should be justified in relation to the specific needs of the Programme in question.

The objectives of the Cross Programme Quality Assurance Group are

To agree objectives, criteria and standards for each national screening programme, ensuring that these are generic where possible (one strand of this work is the development of Map of Medicine care pathways for each programme)
To identify QA roles and responsibilities at local, regional and national level and accountabilities (see document below)
To specify QA structures (people, IT) at national and regional level
To identify QA processes (e.g. peer review, data analysis, failsafes, pathways etc) at regional and national level
To define what constitutes a serious untoward incident and the roles, responsibilities and reporting mechanisms at a local, national and regional level. (eg consideration to be given to "whistle blowing")
To outline monitoring and reporting processes and content at national and regional level
To identify performance management arrangements in relation to QA, including commissioning
To specify training requirements for staff delivering screening and QA
To outline IT and funding requirements for QA
To provide a mechanism for national support and learning across programmes.

The membership includes representatives from all the non cancer screening programmes, SHA screening leads and commissioners. The group is chaired by Linda Garvican and project managed by Jane Woodland and Elizabeth Dormandy.

The Cross Programme Quality Assurance Group will produce an interim report for the May meeting of the RDsPH with a final report due in late summer 2009.

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Roles & Responsibilities of National Screening Programmes in the QA Process
78KB - Posted by: Andrianna Davis - 14/07/2011

This document outlines the roles and responsibilies of the national screening programmes in the QA process which is... more »