PHO Cervical Screening Data Match Report is now available electronically

This is an exciting new development that will assist practices with recalling women.

Fields in the report include NHI, date of birth, the date of the women’s last screen and where it was taken, the next due date, and the important clinical management indicators, for example if the last smear was negative, or low or high grade.  Information on ethnicity and deprivation quintile is also available.

Practices can choose to use any or all of this report, however it is particularly useful as a spreadsheet to filter and identify the following:

• women screened elsewhere
• women with a low or high grade smear who are overdue (able to be sorted by the most overdue)
• women in the practice not yet been enrolled in the National Cervical Screening Programme (NCSP)
• targeted follow-up of women missing out (e.g. by ethnicity and deprivation).

From time to time the Practice Management System may have an incorrect recall date, and this report can be helpful to identify this.

Change in the paper-based recall reports

As practices start using these electronic reports, the paper-based reports many practices have previously received will quickly become redundant.

The Data Match Report has given the NCSP the opportunity to review the paper-based reports and we have asked the NCSP Register Central Team to discontinue routinely sending out Overdue and Smear Taker Recall reports.  Anyone wishing to obtain a paper- based report, on a one-off or regular basis, can contact their DHB/Regional Register Coordinator to request it.

We will also be discontinuing the paper-based Quality of Smears report as, since the advent of Liquid Based Cytology, the number of unsatisfactory samples has reduced dramatically and the reports are therefore less informative than previously. The information about unsatisfactory smears is still recorded on the Register.  If smear takers would like a report (e.g. to include as part of a CPD portfolio) they can request this from their DHB Register Coordinator.

Guidance on using the data match report is available here.