Meeting details
Date of meeting
Wednesday 4 June 2025
Time of meeting
11am to 1pm
Meeting format
MS teams meeting
Members Present
In-Person:
Dr Deirdre Mulholland (DM, Chair), Area Director of Public Health
Dr Jennifer Martin (JM, Deputy Chair), Director of National Health Service Improvement, Public Health
Dr Louise Campbell (LC), Irish College of General Practitioners Representative
Mr Andleeb Zafar (AZ), Chair DiabeticRetina Screen Quality Assurance Committee
Ms Fran Devlin (FD), Patient and Public Partnership Representative
Online:
Ms Jan Yates (JY), Chair CervicalCheck Quality Assurance Committee
Ms Lorraine Schwanberg (LS), Assistant National Director, Incident Management, The National Quality and Patient Safety Directorate
Dr Alissa Connors (AC), Chair BreastCheck Quality Assurance Committee
Ms Grace Reck (GR), Patient and Public Partnership Representative
Apologies
Members:
Dr Caroline Mason Mohan (CMM), Director of Public Health, NSS
Attendees:
Ms Grainne Gleeson (GG), Programme Manager, CervicalCheck, NSS
Prof Pádraic Mac Mathúna (PMcM), Clinical Director, BowelScreen, NSS
In attendance
In-Person:
Ms Colette Brett (CB), Head of Quality, Safety and Risk, NSS
Ms Hilary Coffey (HC), Programme Manager, BowelScreen, NSS
Ms Niamh McNamara (McN), Quality Assurance Coordinator, BowelScreen, NSS
Ms Michelle Lynch (ML), Quality, Safety and Risk Manager, NSS
Dr Alan Smith (AS), Consultant in Public Health Medicine, NSS
Ms Karolina Guzek (KG), Quality, Safety and Risk Executive Officer, NSS - Secretariat
Online:
Ms Helen Kavanagh (HK), Programme Manager, Diabetic RetinaScreen, NSS
Dr Noirin Russell (NR), Clinical Director, CervicalCheck, NSS
Dr David Keegan (DK), Clinical Director, Diabetic RetinaScreen, NSS
Ms Debbie Ryan (DR), Quality Assurance Coordinator, CervicalCheck, NSS
Meeting minutes
1.Welcome, introduction and apologies
The Chair welcomed meeting attendees. Apologies for the meeting were noted.
CB confirmed that Dr David Burling has now resigned from the role of BowelScreen Quality Assurance Committee chair and this position will be filled in the interim by the NSS Public Health representative. The Committee Chair and members expressed their sincere appreciation to DB for his commitment and valuable contributions to the committee.
2.Conflicts of interest
Conflict of Interest forms for all new members, where relevant, shall be completed after today’s meeting.
3.Minutes of meeting 30 March 2025
Minutes of the previous meeting were reviewed and approved by the Committee. All open actions were reviewed and updated on Action Log.
4.Presentation: Our Data Ecosystem Roadmap 2025-2030
Presentation on National Screening Service Our Data Ecosystem Roadmap, 2025-2030 given by Dr Alan Smith, National Screening Service Consultant in Public Health Medicine.
The National Screening Service’s aim is to build a secure and efficient data ecosystem to support better governance, management, and use of data which will assist with improving the efficiency of the screening programmes.
Its key objectives are to:
- develop an organisation-wide data strategy
- improve data accessibility, reporting and visualisation
- strengthen data protection.
During the process 28 different tasks and projects of different sizes and complexity were identified - the roadmap. These tasks and projects were then organised under four different areas:
- Governance, Quality and Data Management
- Data Architecture and Integration
- Data, People and Culture
- Analytics, Visualisation and Reporting.
Out of 28 projects, two were assigned the highest priority:
- Data Architecture
- Centralised Data Management.
Committee members acknowledged the progress made to date and questioned whether the National Screening Service is engaging with the HSE Digital Transformation Team, regarding the Electronic Healthcare Records. AS confirmed that while there has been no collaboration on this specific project yet, the NSS is working with HSE Digital Transformation Team.
5.Cross-Programme Review
BreastCheck Programme Review Q1, 2025
- Update given by BreastCheck Quality Assurance Committee chair and acknowledged, including confirmation of recent European Reference Organisation for Quality Assured Breast Screening and Diagnostic Services (EUREF) re-certification. EUREF found that same level of care is provided to screening participants across all four BreastCheck units.
- AC confirmed the recruitment of BreastCheck staff, especially within radiography and radiology remains a challenge, and re-assured members that both capacity and staffing are being reviewed regularly to ensure minimum interruptions to business continuity.
CervicalCheck Programme Review Q1, 2025
- Update given by CervicalCheck Quality Assurance Committee chair and acknowledged, including management of increased projected attendance for screening in late 2025 and early 2026, due to pause caused by COVID-19 and move to HPV screening.
- JY noted the 30% increase from the original projected target for women who attended screening in Q1 2025.
- Cervical Cancer Elimination Action Plan 2025–2030 was discussed and query was raised regarding self-testing. JY confirmed that target-based self-sampling is already practiced in England and informed that CervicalCheck is also exploring this feasibility.
- Members suggested reviewing risks by identifying common themes occurring across programmes, such as recruitment, without focusing on specific details, but rather providing a high-level overview of recurring issues. CB agreed that this is worth exploring.
BowelScreen Programme Review Q1, 2025
- Update given by BowelScreen Programme Manager and acknowledged, including reminder that BowelScreen relies on downstream capacity in endoscopy clinics and histopathology laboratories to ensure that screened participants can be progressed through the appropriate clinical pathway in a timely manner, and the invitation patterns reflects this. HC informed that programme re-commenced engagement with two new endoscopy units and one histopathology unit to address ongoing capacity issues.
- HC reminded the group that April was Bowel Cancer Awareness Month and that, as of 1 April 2025, the eligible age range has been extended to include 70-year-olds. Free bowel screening is now available to everyone aged 59 to 70.
- HC also noted that projects aimed at increasing uptake are being prioritised. These include the development of a webpage where participants can submit their details to receive a FIT kit, as well as a texting pilot to remind participants to return their FIT kits.
- JM suggested reviewing the risk descriptions to ensure that any potential “risk to patients” and associated impacts are clearly noted in the description. HC and CB responded that the risks are more strategic than operational but agreed to pass the feedback on to the programme team for consideration.
DiabeticRetina Screen Programme Review Q1, 2025
- Update given by DiabeticRetina Screen Quality Assurance Committee chair and acknowledged, including information on four software releases that went live in Q1 2025: DRS register, with enhancements to the programme register, Web Registration, with new “find my address” capability and OptoMize Pregnancy Pathway and QA standards.
- AZ confirmed that delays in treatment centre appointments continue to be a challenge, primarily due to waiting lists, recruitment difficulties, and limited clinic capacity. However, the committee was assured that mitigations and corrective measures are in place to address the issue.
- AZ reported that the Diabetic RetinaScreen programme successfully hosted its first Six Nations Diabetic RetinaScreen meeting and their first Leaders Forum, aimed at NSS and NEC Care, service provider for the programme, senior management in Q1.
6.NSS Quality, Safety and Risk (QSR) Information Report
Quality, Safety and Risk Review Q1, 2025
- Update given by CB and acknowledged, including update on projects and initiatives led by Quality, Safety and Risk and Information Governance teams.
- CB informed members of submission of feedback to National Quality and Patient Safety Office on draft HSE Guideline for the identification and reporting of Notifiable Incidents and noted the NSS compliance with the Open Disclosure e-learning Module 1 “Communicating Effectively through Open Disclosure” is currently at 73% and Open Disclosure Workshop training scheduled for next two quarters.
- CB noted that the Quality, Safety and Risk team is representing the National Screening Service on the Shared Learning and Quality Improvement, and National Incident Management System/Data workstreams as part of the HSE Incident Management Framework 2020 review.
Quality, Safety and Risk Dashboard Q1, 2025
- Update given by CB and acknowledged.
- CB reported that, following a suggestion from the previous meeting, the use of run charts and different way to present the dashboards was being explored with NSS statistician.
- LS informed members that the incident impact table on National Incident Management System (NIMS) is currently under review and will be updated in a due course.
NSS Risk Management
- Update given by CB and acknowledged.
- CB informed all NSS Corporate Risk Register, and four programme Risk Registers risks are now entered on HSE Risk Information System. Quality, Safety and Risk team is currently working with the HSE Risk Office on the development of quarterly reports.
- CB confirmed that the QSR team are currently monitoring the use of the HSE Risk Information System, and any feedback is forwarded to the HSE Risk Office for follow-up.
7.Documents for noting
Two documents were shared with the committee members:
- QSRM Committee 2024 End of Year Report- for approval
- Final report of the recertification Audit of the Irish BreastCheck Programme – for noting.
8.NSS Stakeholder Update
The National Screening Service stakeholders’ updates were shared with the committee members for noting.
9.Actions Update
All actions reviewed and updated on the Action Log.
10.AOB
It was agreed to invite Dr Alan Smith, National Screening Service Consultant in Public Health Medicine, to the next meeting to update committee members on the ongoing work related to Artificial Intelligence.
11.Date of next meeting
Wednesday 10 September 2025