Friday 14 February 2014
The Health and Social Services Department has published a series of extracts from Board minutes and all three versions of the Bowel Cancer Screening business case on its website, in the interest of openness, so that the documents will be easily available to the public.
The Health and Social Services Department has published a series of extracts from Board minutes and all three versions of the Bowel Cancer Screening business case on its website, in the interest of openness, so that the documents will be easily available to the public.
The Department has received a further Rule 6 Question from Deputy Hadley, who would like to revisit when and how changes were made to the business case, which led to only one age group (60 year olds) being screened when the service started.
The Health and Social Services Minister, Deputy Mark Dorey, said:
"We know that internal communication about the bowel cancer screening service could have been better throughout the life of the service so far. This was noted in HSSD's recent report. So it's not possible for the current Board, who were not involved with HSSD at the time, to say for sure what previous Board members thought or knew when the service started in 2012. If Deputy Hadley believes that he was told the service would screen two age groups from the outset, I'm not going to challenge that.
"But it's clear that, in practice, no such message was communicated to staff, as the service carried on screening one age group in 2012, after the pilot was finished. Based on our reading of the Board papers and supporting documents from that time, there is evidence that there was an agreement to start the service this way, with the apparent understanding that it would expand in future, once certain changes had taken place.
"These changes didn't happen earlier in the life of the service, but I met with MSG in early October and we agreed that a review would now be done and followed through. At that time, I was unaware of the professional differences of opinion about who should be screened. Since then, HSSD has published an evaluation of the service from 2011 to 2013, and the clinicians are working on proposals for the permanent service, to be considered shortly by the Professional Guidance Committee."
In its answer to Deputy Hadley's Rule 6 Question, HSSD has provided a detailed analysis of the changes between the first business case, which was submitted for the States' Strategic Plan in 2011, and the final business case, which was submitted to Treasury & Resources in 2012 to get the funding released. The Department has concluded, based on this analysis, that there was a definite plan to start by screening only one age group, at the time the service started in 2012. HSSD has also included another extract of the 20 January 2012 Board minute and paper which was referred to in Deputy Dorey's speech at the last States Meeting.
The paper refers to an "interim" "limited screening service" which "mirrors the pilot study" being started. Deputy Dorey said:
"This minute helps to explain why we think the previous Board were aware of, and probably supported, the decision to start the service with only one age group. Everybody agrees that the permanent service model was meant to be different in the long term. This is why a proper process is now being followed, which started with my meeting with MSG in October, and which has already led to the publication of a review. A process for making changes has been agreed by all the parties involved in the service, and is being followed through. It is now the time to focus political energy and staff time on getting the service right for the future, based on the professional recommendations of the clinicians involved."
-ENDS-
Further information
All of the relevant documents can be found at www.gov.gg/bowelcancerscreening
