We presented 3 posters at the HSE Public and Patient Partnership Conference in Croke Park, Dublin, on 15 October 2026. Our presentations demonstrated how we are working with patients and the public to improve our screening services and communications.
The conference brought together people who use our health services, healthcare professionals, advocates, community organisations, researchers and healthcare leaders to share examples of partnership in action.
The conference coincided with National Lived Experience Awareness Day. It explored what partnership looks like in practice and how lived experience can help shape health and social care.
Co-designing personal stories to demonstrate the impact of screening
Our first poster presented on our work with our Patient and Public Partnership (PPP) representatives and Breakthrough Cancer Research on the ‘Cancer Revolution: Science, Innovation and Hope’ exhibition.
We worked with 3 of our PPP representatives to tell their personal stories of screening with BreastCheck, CervicalCheck and BowelScreen. Dympna, Alejandra and Mary chose meaningful objects connected with their experience to help tell their stories and had co-designed how their experiences were shared. This helped us create an exhibition based on trust, respect and lived experience. Their portraits, stories and objects were displayed in the exhibition alongside screening information.
The exhibition ran from August 2025 to April 2026 with over 20,000 people and 200 school groups visiting. One third of visitors named screening information as one of the most impactful parts of the exhibition.
Working with women to make BreastCheck information clearer
Our second poster showed how we redesigned our BreastCheck letters and information to make them easier to understand and more focused on the person receiving the information.
Our approach included:
- understanding the problem
- designing around the user need
- testing and improving the solution.
We used feedback from women and our BreastCheck staff to understand what women needed from the information they received. We applied international evidence and best practice in communications including the World Health Organization Better Letters framework and behavioural science principles. We used our Communications toolkit to apply Plain Language principles.
The redesigned materials achieved a Grade 4 reading level, compared with Grade 9 for the previous letters, and were awarded the NALA Plain English Mark. Patient representatives described the new communications as easier to read, reassuring and supportive.
We presented how this project, involving people who use our services, helped us create clearer, more accessible and person-centred information.
Growing meaningful patient and public partnership
Our third poster presented the story of our experience supporting our PPP representatives to play a meaningful and active role in our screening programmes.
We want our PPP representatives to be equal partners in our work, with opportunities to share their lived experience and influence decisions. We have worked with our PPP representatives to build this approach together.
This has included:
- co-designing our Patient and Public Partnership Strategy
- developing a recruitment campaign to grow and diversify our membership
- improving our information materials
- involving more representatives in activities across our screening programmes and services.
The results show how our PPP has grown. PPP representatives reported feeling better informed about screening and more confident sharing their knowledge. Our work to make screening information clear, accessible and person-centred has shown positive results. The number of activities our PPP reps are involved in has increased including contributing to committees, projects and research.
Our experience has shown us that meaningful partnership involves working together as equals, respecting different expertise and making sure we listen to and learn from the lived experience to help shape our work and decisions.
Our presentations at the conference showed that by continuing to work alongside patients and the public, we are making our information clearer, our services more person-centred and our decisions better informed by the people who use them.