Quality plan - Cervical screening

Since the programme has begun we've seen a steady decline in cervical cancer deaths - by about 60 per cent.

Pregnant women are included in the eligible cervical screening population as there is no clinical reason not to complete cervical screening during pregnancy. Delay can be considered if the woman has a normal screening history, in which case cervical screening can be deferred to the 3/12 post natal period in consultation with the woman. Practices can alter the recall date to three months post natal,enter relevant details in the notes field in the recall. An alert to highlight pregnant and EDD can also be added if they wish.

It is important to be using the recommended outcome codes when entering results as issues can occur when:

• patients move between practice through GP2GP
• practices move onto other practice management systems.

Goals 06 and 07

• 06 - 75 per cent of enrolled eligible women aged 25-69 years who are Māori, Pacific peoples or other ethnicity living in quintile 5 areas have a current cervical smear result. (8 points)
• 07 - 75 per cent of enrolled eligible women aged 25-69 years have a current cervical smear result. (4 points)

When changes to the cervical screening programme were introduced in September 2023, changes needed to be made to ensure the new HPV codes were mapped to practice management systems.

This work is still to be completed by BPAC, meaning the coverage for indicators 6 and 7 for Medtech practices is not accurate for the April to June 2024 period. 

We are offering practices the same two options as the previous quarters. 

Option 1 - BPI lists

Medtech practices affected can send their BPI list of patients (removing names and identifiable data) who have been screened to Michelle Bayley, clinical governance manager, ensuring each list for these two indicators have the names of patients who have been screened crossed out, and including a number at the bottom of the page totalling the number of patients who should come off your lists. 

If spreadsheets have been received before Friday 5 June, the Q4 quality plan payment for these indicators will be based on this information.  

Option 2 – automatic payment based on previous performance

We are aware that option 1 may be a significant piece of work for practices with a large population, so we have the following alternative option for these practices. Medtech practices affected can choose to have their Q4 (April to June) payment based on the highest of the previous four quarter achievements.

We will apply the option 2 automatic payment process to all practices that do not put in a BPI list by 5 June, there is no need to do anything further.

We want to apologise to practices for this issue; the tech problem is beyond our control and a result of the national change to HPV screening that happened late last year.