Meeting details
Date of meeting
Monday 30th September 2024
Time of meeting
3pm to 5pm
Meeting format
MS Teams Meeting
Members Present
Dr Jennifer Martin (JM, Deputy Chair), Director of National Health Service Improvement, Public Health,
Mr Damian Nee (DN), Patient Representative,
Dr Caroline Mason Mohan (CMM), NSS Public Health Representative,
Dr Alissa Connors (AC), Chair BreastCheck Quality Assurance Committee,
Dr David Burling (DB), Chair BowelScreen Quality Assurance Committee,
Mr Andleeb Zafar (AZ), Chair DiabeticRetina Screen Quality Assurance Committee,
Ms Lorraine Schwanberg (LS), Assistant National Director, Incident Management, The National Quality and Patient Safety Directorate,
Ms Mary Hewson (MH), Patient Representative,
Dr Louise Campbell (LC), Irish College of General Practitioners Representative
Apologies
Dr Deirdre Mulholland (DM), Area Director of Public Health,
Ms Jan Yates (JY), Chair CervicalCheck Quality Assurance Committee,
Ms Suzanne Lynch (SL), Programme Manager, BreastCheck, NSS
In attendance
Ms Colette Brett (CB), Head of Quality, Safety and Risk, NSS
Ms Hilary Coffey (HC), Programme Manager, BowelScreen, NSS
Prof Padraig MacMathuna (PMcM), Clinical Director, BowelScreen, NSS
Dr Noirin Russell (NR), Clinical Director, CervicalCheck, NSS
Ms Grainne Gleeson (GG), Programme Manager, CervicalCheck, NSS
Ms Helen Kavanagh (HK), Programme Manager, Diabetic RetinaScreen, NSS
Ms Belinda Carroll (BC), Deputy Programme Manager, BreastCheck, NSS
Ms Michelle Lynch (ML), Quality, Safety and Risk Manager, NSS
Ms Karolina Guzek (KG), Quality, Safety and Risk Executive Officer, NSS - Secretariat
Meeting minutes
1. Welcome, Introduction and Apologies
The Deputy Chair welcomed meeting attendees and introduced new member of the committee, Dr Louise Campbell, who will be representing Irish College of General Practitioners. Apologies for the meeting were noted
2. Conflicts of Interest
There were no conflicts of interest to be noted.
3. Minutes of Meeting 12th June 2024
Minutes of the previous meeting were reviewed and approved by the Committee. Members were reminded approved minutes will be published on the HSE website.
4. Cross-Programme Review
BreastCheck Programme Review Q2, 2024
- Update given by BreastCheck Quality Assurance Committee chair and acknowledged, including the new BreastCheck database (AIRE), and the European Reference Organisation for Quality Assured Breast Screening and Diagnostic Services (EUREF) programme accreditation. Ongoing staff shortages were noted. Committee members offered their support to Chief Executive in work to address staff shortages, in whatever form would be helpful, if same required.
CervicalCheck Programme Review Q2, 2024
- Update given by CervicalCheck Quality Assurance Committee chair and acknowledged including recent Quality Assurance visits
BowelScreen Programme Review Q2, 2024
- Update given by BowelScreen Quality Assurance Committee chair and acknowledged, including completion of Post-Colonoscopy Colorectal Cancer rate and update on new user-friendly BowelScreen webpage interface.
Diabetic RetinaScreen Programme Review Q2, 2024
- Update given by Diabetic RetinaScreen Quality Assurance Committee chair and acknowledged.
5. NSS Quality, Safety and Risk (QSR) Information Report
Quality Assurance Presentation
Presentation on NSS Quality Assurance Policy Framework, circulated after the last meeting, given by CB. Members commended robust and thorough quality assurance process within the organisation.
- The approved Quality Assurance Policy Framework: Quality Assurance Governance Procedure document was circulated to members. CB highlighted changes in QSRM Committee Terms of Reference which were introduced to ensure alignment with the procedure. Draft Terms of Reference will be circulated to members for feedback, and for approval at Q4 meeting scheduled for December 2024.
- Draft QSRM Committee Membership
CB pointed out that the committee membership will be updated to ensure it is in line with the updated Terms of Reference. The absence of HSE Regional Area Authority representative on the committee was noted and members agreed to wait with the potential invite until proper structures are in place.
Patient Safety Act Presentation
Presentation on Patient Safety Act given by CB. Presentation gave a general overview and focused on communication of patient requested cancer screening reviews (Part 5 reviews) due to their relevance to National Screening Service.
NSS Quality, Safety and Risk Review Q2, 2024
- Update given by CB and acknowledged. CB noted completion of project on redevelopment of electronic logging of incidents and reporting of Your Service Your Say in line with HSE policies.
Quality, Safety and Risk Dashboard Q2, 2024
- Update given by CB and acknowledged.
- Members queried if there’s data on lives saved because of cancer screening, that could be presented publicly. Attendees pointed towards National Cancer Registry Ireland reports whilst noting that pre cancer and cancers are diagnosed at earlier stage for those who attend cancer screening.
NSS Corporate Risk Register Report Q2, 2024
- Update given by CB and acknowledged.
- CB confirmed Population Screening Sustainability Risk from NSS Corporate Risk Register is also being monitored on HSE Risk Register.
6. Documents for Noting
No documents for noting were presented.
7. NSS Stakeholders Update
The National Screening Service stakeholders’ updates were shared with the Committee members for noting.
8. Actions update
All actions reviewed and updated on the Action Log.
9. AOB
There was no other business brought for discussion.
10. Date of next meeting
Next meeting Monday, 9th December 2024