Cancer Screening & Awareness Programme Update – Sarah Holbrey Blog

Our Cancer Screening & Awareness Programme is continuing to work with the remaining participating Primary Care Networks (PCNs); Chapeltown, Armley, Bramley, Wortley & Middleton, and Burmantofts, Harehills and Richmond Hill (BHR). Back in May, we celebrated our End of Year 1 milestone and held a shared learning event with our Cancer Care Coordinators and key partners to showcase key case studies and outcomes from the programme to date. It was a wonderful opportunity to see the work that everybody involved in the programme has contributed to and discuss ongoing challenges in cancer screening.

Some key learning has been around interventions to improve access to screening and engaging with patients with language or cultural barriers.

For example, giving patients the ability to self-book their own cervical screening appointment using an appointment invite function allows patients to take their time finding a suitable appointment that works for them, and frees up practice phonelines and receptionist time. About a quarter of patients who are sent a self-booking link will respond and make an appointment via this method, including patients who initially ignored their cervical screening invite letter.

Alternatively, drop-in clinics have so far also been successful. Armley PCN has trialled three Saturday drop in-clinics which have seen a total of 72 patients, most of whom were previous non-responders. Whilst these clinics need careful consideration of staffing and how to ensure the right patients are made aware (and the wrong patients aren’t!), it demonstrates that more flexible access can work, even on a sunny Saturday!

Regarding patients with language and cultural barriers, BHR PCN has been working with South Asian women to encourage attendance at cervical screening appointments. As a lot of patient contact (such as to book someone in for cervical screening) involves a spontaneous phone call, there are limitations to using interpreter services where a pre-booked appointment is usually required. Literacy can be a challenge for patients in these communities, so even sending a text in a patient’s first language might not work. BHR PCN have been trialling an approach using workers with language skills to phone patients and encourage them to book an appointment for cervical screening. Whilst it takes time to build trust, once established, patients do want to engage. As well as booking (and attending) cervical screening, patients are also opening up about other areas of support they want help with, demonstrating that once barriers are removed, patients will engage.

We are continuing to consolidate findings and learnings and look forward to sharing these wider.

Sarah Holbrey, Service Delivery Manager, Yorkshire Cancer Research: Cancer Screening & Awareness Programme