Screening programmes in EMIS Web

Screening programmes in EMIS Web

The national screening programmes operate in a number of different ways, in terms of recall, following up non-responders, and reporting. This article shows how Practices can work with these programmes in EMIS Web.

Cervical Cancer Screening

Available to all women with a cervix aged 25 – 64 (women between these ages who have a code indicating a procedure of a total abdominal hysterectomy are automatically excluded).
Patients aged 25-49 will automatically receive an invitation every 3 years; patients aged 50-64 will automatically receive an invitation every 5 years. Women who have received a letter in the previous 3 or 5 years – but ignored it – are still eligible for a smear. Women who have had a smear test in the previous 3 or 5 years are not eligible for a repeat smear until they are next invited. Any tests which do slip through at the surgery will be rejected by the laboratory without being tested.

The first two invitation letters in a cycle are automatically generated; the first 6 weeks before your smear is due, and a second to non-responders 18 weeks later. The surgery sends a third and final invitation a further 14 weeks later. Consider adding the following sentence:  
If you do not want a smear, please do not just throw your invitation in the bin; please help to save us time by letting us know as soon as possible. By telling us you won’t receive another reminder letter from us for 3 or 5 years.

Currently the trigger to send the third letter comes from the Practice Electronic Cards application on Open Exeter; Practices take the women marked as non responders and generate their own invitations.
Once you have cleared the defer and ceasing patients, a quick method for taking details for non responder is to copy the NHS number column and paste the numbers into Notepad (which is saved for quick access on the desktop).

Whilst smear results are usually returned as a lab report into EMIS Web, they are not coded. Coding of results can be done using OneLauncher Admin.

Breast Cancer Screening

Women over the age of 50 will automatically receive an invitation every 3 years; women over the age of 71 can self-refer once every 3 years by contacting their local screening team.
Coding of results can be done using OneLauncher Admin.

Bowel Cancer Screening

Available to men and women aged 55 or over.
Patients aged 54 will be automatically invited for a one-off bowel scope screening test; patients aged 60-74 will be automatically invited every 2 years to do use a home testing kit which is then sent off for analysis.
Patients over the age of 75 can continue to use a home testing kit every 2 years by contacting the national bowel cancer screening helpline on 0800 7076060.

Bowel cancer results are returned to EMIS through Lab Reports. There is a standard format, and results come in coded. Results come in addressed to 'Bowel cancer screening administrator' so it is possible to configure EMIS to route these results directly to a member of the admin team to File No Comment.
Follow up for abnormal results are managed by the BCSP and local hospitals. Should Practices wish to follow up abnormal results themselves, or send reminders to non responders, searches are a simple way of identifying such patients.
The lower age for bowel cancer screening eligibility is reducing from 55 to 50 over a 5 year period.


Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Screening

Available to men aged 65 or over; men over the age of 65 who have not received a screening invitation can request to be screened by contacting their local screening team. We recommend Practices are aware of their local contact details, which should be attainable from a local hospital or CCG.
​

Diabetic Eye Screening

All patients with diabetes are automatically invited annually for diabetic retinopathy screening. In many areas information is automatically extracted from the surgery to invite patients.
Practices should be aware of current guidance to code patients whose HbA1c has improved with 'Diabetes in remission' rather than the historic 'Diabetes resolved', affording these patients ongoing access to screening services.

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