Welcome to our latest news summary featuring updates from the National Screening Service. To keep up to date with our news, including upcoming events and job opportunities, read our news reports, follow us on X @NSShse, LinkedIn, and on Bluesky.
2024 end of year report published
We published our 2024 End of Year Report this month. It captures the progress we have made together to implement the second year of our strategy, Choose Screening: Together we can make a difference.
The report shows we are continuing to work to improve population health in Ireland through our focus on operational excellence, service quality and improvements.
Some of the highlights from the report include our work to improve equity in screening and to make screening more accessible to everyone. We achieved this through initiatives such as our Community Champions project and staff disability awareness training.
Read our 2024 End of Year Report.
Bowel Cancer Awareness Month 2025
From 1 April 2025, BowelScreen will be available to everyone aged 59 to 70 – this is a further expansion of the eligible age range. Inviting people aged 70 will mean approximately 48,000 more BowelScreen invitations being sent over the next two years, offering people another opportunity to reduce their risk of developing bowel cancer. Thanks to all our stakeholders who are sharing information on this new screening age range.
This Bowel Cancer Awareness Month, Joe Grogan from Tuam in Co. Galway has shared his story in a new video. Joe was one of the first 59-year-olds to take part in BowelScreen after the age range was extended to include people aged 59 in October 2023. Joe had bowel cancer detected after he took his first BowelScreen test.
Joe says: “I don’t want people to be afraid of getting screened for bowel cancer; it’s a first step. If it comes back negative, happy days. If there is an issue deal with it. Don’t let it go. Bowel cancer can be treatable, especially when it’s found early.”
We are grateful for Joe for sharing his story to encourage others to choose bowel screening. Watch Joe’s BowelScreen story.
We have developed a Bowel Cancer Awareness Month partner pack with our colleagues in the National Cancer Control Programme. It includes resources and messages about bowel screening and bowel cancer that you can share during Bowel Cancer Awareness Month. If you would like a copy of the partner pack, please contact us at communications@screeningservice.ie.
You can support our campaign by engaging with us online and sharing our key messages. Follow us on X @NSShse, LinkedIn, and on Bluesky. Follow the HSE on Facebook and Instagram.
Partnership project aims to highlight link between smoking and persistent HPV
We marked HPV Awareness Day on 4 March by launching new resources to support patients and healthcare professionals to understand the links between smoking, HPV and cervical cancer. Smoking increases the risk of having an active HPV infection which can lead to harmful health outcomes such as cell abnormalities in the cervix and cervical cancer.
Working with colleagues in Tobacco Free Ireland, the Nurses in Colposcopy Clinics in Ireland Association, and UCC School of Public Health, we developed these resources that support patients and healthcare professionals.
CervicalCheck Clinical Director, Professor Nóirín Russell said: “About four in 10 women who attend colposcopy clinics in Ireland are smokers, and we want to support our colposcopy clinics to have conversations with women about smoking, and the link between HPV and cervical cancer.”
Five years on – reflecting on the impact of primary HPV cervical screening
On 30 March 2020, our CervicalCheck programme made the switch from cytology (the traditional smear test) to primary HPV testing. Ireland was an early adopter of primary HPV cervical screening joining countries including Australia, England, Wales and the Netherlands.
Over the past five years, we have seen the impact of the introduction of this screening test. In screening, we’re trying to find the 20 women in every 1,000 screened who have high-grade abnormal cells, and treat them to prevent cervical cancer. Cytology picked up about 15 out of the 20 women who have abnormalities in every 1,000 women screened. HPV testing detects 18 out of those 20. The chance of a false negative test is also lower with HPV testing.
During this time, CervicalCheck has continued to develop and innovate. The National Cervical Screening Laboratory opened in 2023, and we have worked to increase uptake. Our coverage in 2022 was 73%, the third highest in the EU and well above the EU average of 55%. High participation in the screening programme is crucial because nearly half of cervical cancers are diagnosed in women who have never been screened. We have worked with patients to develop patient-designed processes for people who develop cancer after screening and recently we worked with people who use our services, our staff and our partners, to develop a new CervicalCheck charter.
In a new blog, Prof Nóirín Russell reflects on the change to HPV cervical screening, why it provides better outcomes for women, and what we have learned in the past five years to further improve the programme.
More news in brief
Here is some more news we reported recently:
- New report shows important role of communities in supporting people to access screening
- CervicalCheck age range explained
- National Screening Service playing its part in EU-wide pilot study on prostate cancer screening
- Working with our European partners to improve access to cancer screening programmes
- New report recommends patient-centred approach to reduce the harms of legal processes relating to population screening and interval cancers
- Measuring our rate of post-colonoscopy bowel cancers
- National Screening Service supports European lung cancer screening project
- 6 blogs to get you up to date about HPV vaccines cervical screening and cervical cancer elimination
We value your feedback - please contact us at: communications@screeningservice.ie.