Increasing the uptake of cervical screening at Vanbrugh group practice

Increasing the uptake of cervical screening at Vanbrugh group practice

2^nd International Conference on Primary Healthcare and Pain Management
May 09, 2022 | Webinar

Shern-Ping Choy, Rhiannon James, Sruthi Venkatesan and Yuna Ahn

University of Cambridge, UK
King’s College London, UK

Scientific Tracks Abstracts : J Prim Care Gen Pract

Abstract:

Cervical cancer is the Fourth most common cancer in women and around 70% of cervical deaths from cancer are prevented by screening. Data released shows the CCG is currently achieving a 67.1% annual coverage, falling below the national target of 80% for the screening program. Hence, highlighting the importance of focusing our project on this area. Aim To increase the uptake of cervical smears in women aged 25-64 at the Vanbrugh group practice by March 2021, with an objective of reaching the 80% national target for cervical screening over the next quarter. Methods Intervention 1 was a text message notification to all eligible patients reminding them to book an appointment, with a link to an information leaflet included. Intervention 2 was a short presentation aimed at health care professionals at the practice, with information about the importance of cervical screening and suggestions on how to improve uptake. Results Overall, our project achieved our aim which was to increase the uptake of cervical smears at Vanbrugh GP. During the first intervention there was a 138% increase from the baseline, and an increase during the first and second monitoring periods, by 11% and 78% respectively. However, there was no percentage change in uptake from the baseline during the second intervention. Conclusion Although there was an increase in cervical cancer screening rates following our interventions, it is difficult to fully attribute these changes to our project due to various limitations. For instance, though our goal was to reach the 80% national uptake target, we were unable to calculate this due to the unavailability of the data concerning how many women were due to have their smear over the time period of our interventions. Ultimately however, covid-19 and its disruption to our daily lives was the biggest limitation to our project.

Biography:

Shern-Ping Choy is an MPhil in Therapeutic Sciences candidate at the University of Cambridge, taking an intercalation from her medical studies at King’s College London in order to further her interest in novel therapeutic modalities as well as the business of biotechnology. She graduated from Imperial College Business School in 2020 with a First-Class degree in Medical Sciences with Management, where she worked with a team of researchers in evaluating the efficacy of remote patient monitoring in the management of COPD. She has worked on a quality improvement project to develop patient and healthcare professional targeted interventions to improve the uptake of cervical screening at a London GP. She also has an interest in dermatology and is has worked with dermatologists at St John’s Institute of Dermatology in London on a machine learning project for psoriasis and is currently conducting a systematic review on machine learning methods in dermatology.

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