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Health Services Research Unit

Tackling Inequalities in Access to Screening Services - NHS Grampian

Tackling Inequalities in Access to Screening Services - NHS Grampian

This is a collaborative project with NHS Grampian and the Grampian Regional Equality Council (GREC) that aims to reduce inequalities in access to cancer screening services.  This project is part of a portfolio of work, mostly methodological, that aims to improve diversity in trials, health research more generally and health service delivery. 

The key aim of the project is to expand ongoing work with people from ethnic minority groups to also include other groups, for example people with physical or learning difficulties, who do not currently use screening services to the extent that many other people in Grampian do. 

Key deliverables:

  1. To expand ongoing collaborative work with GREC and NHS Grampian focusing on ethnic minority individuals to now also include other groups that do not currently use cancer screening to the extent that many others in Grampian do. Initial focus will address all three of the NHS Grampian cancer screening programs (breast, bowel, and cervical) and will be led by a place-based, intelligence (i.e. data) driven approach at area level to identify and address issues of equitable access.

  2. To systematically identify and review existing published evidence on cancer screening uptake for these additional groups in the form of an evidence summary to be used for briefing at both the local and national level. International in scope, this summary will offer a clear direction for further action items including potential interventions to address inequalities in the uptake of cancer screening in Grampian and Scotland more widely. Recommendations for further review will be informed by the Equity Group and reflective of data and intelligence information presented by Public Health Scotland.

  3. To organise, together with collaborators, discussions with members of these groups on cancer screening, their views of it and how NHS Grampian could make screening more attractive to them. This may include presenting and evaluating findings from the literature alongside information provided through stakeholder discussions to better contextual evidence at the local level. 

  4. To begin the process of designing interventions and/or approaches that can support members of the groups we work with to engage with cancer screening services to a greater extent than at present. These interventions will be reflective of and actioned by the proposed evidence summary, in consultation with the appropriate stakeholder groups.

The project is led by Professor Shaun Treweek and Dr Miriam Brazzelli in the Health Services Research Unit (HSRU). This project will support NHS Grampian’s contribution to the Scottish Government’s “Recovery and redesign: an action plan for cancer services”. 

Contacts

Status

Ongoing