Update on the review of breast and cervical screening support services

Screening support services are intended to remove barriers that prevent priority women from accessing their appointments. These services make a big difference to a small group of women and their whānau, by providing individually tailored and practical support, such as transport to appointments.  

A series of workshops with stakeholders last year, along with a Request For Information, highlighted the importance of continuing these services. However, the feedback that we received was that improvements could be made to the services on offer, and service providers could work together more to support women to attend their screening appointments. We also want to introduce a results based approach to contracts for this service.

A Request For Proposal (RFP), for providers interested in delivering these services, was issued at the end of 2015, and this resulted in 30 responses. The proposals are now being reviewed by a specialist evaluation panel. Successful and unsuccessful providers will be confirmed in June this year.

“There’s been progress over the past decade in improving the participation of priority women in breast and cervical screening, but there’s still much work to be done," National Screening Unit Group Manager Astrid Koornneef says.

The National Screening Unit is committed to ensuring the $3.4 million we spend each year on these services is well targeted. The overall level of funding for screening support services is not changing as a result of the review.

The new contracts will begin on 1 November 2016.