We’ve published our 2023 end of year report.
The report shows the progress we have made in our first year implementing our 5-year strategy - Choose Screening, Together we can make a difference – which we launched in 2023.
Our work is driven by our vision to work together to save lives and improve people’s health through population screening, and our actions in 2023 demonstrate our commitment to this.
Putting people at the heart of what we do and working in partnership with our stakeholders are central to our strategy. In 2023 we developed new services and strengthened our engagement and collaboration with our partners, including:
- establishing personal cervical screening reviews for women who are diagnosed with cervical cancer after screening
- rolling out national eye screening for women with diabetes who become pregnant
- expanding the age range for BowelScreen, making it available to more people
- capturing the experiences of women who attend our BreastCheck programme through a new online survey
- developing new resources to support our Patient and Public Partnership
- working with our partners to develop and implement Ireland’s roadmap to Cervical Cancer Elimination.
We led new research projects to increase our evidence-base and support new service developments, including:
- exploring the potential of self-sampling in cervical screening
- exploring the use of technology to improve the effectiveness of bowel cancer screening
- research on non-attendance in our Diabetic RetinaScreen programme
- national public attitudes research to determine knowledge and awareness of our four screening programmes.
We shared our expertise nationally and internationally, presenting our work at various conferences and events. In July 2023, we welcomed the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) to Dublin to launch a new collaborative report on best practices in cervical screening programmes.
We have improved the visibility of our work, continuing to build trust and confidence in our health service by providing open and accessible information about screening and improving health literacy. In 2023 we launched our new corporate website and reported regularly on our activities, service developments, new initiatives and projects.
It is a priority for us that all eligible people can access our services and in 2023 we published a new strategic framework to address and improve equity in screening. We co-developed and published a new stakeholder engagement framework which sets out a clear purpose and process for consistent engagement to improve the quality and effectiveness of our screening services.
The report outlines our commitment to good governance, quality assurance and continuous improvement. We developed a new quality assurance policy framework to support a standardised, consistent and effective cross-programme approach to improve outcomes for people who choose screening.
Our strategy outlines our commitment to developing a supportive environment where staff feel valued and empowered to deliver high-quality services underpinned by our values of care, compassion, trust and learning. In 2023 we established an organisational development project to guide how we embed these values into our actions and behaviours, and we supported staff development through increased training and learning opportunities.
Publishing the report, our Chief Executive Fiona Murphy said “The work of our staff in 2023 clearly demonstrates our belief that excellence in service delivery is achieved by partnership working and a focus on engagement. Working together, we are building trust and confidence in our services and creating better outcomes for the people we care for. We will continue this work as we continue to implement our strategy and as we seek to support and enable everyone to choose screening.”