Health Equity Audits of Greater Manchester Breast and Bowel Cancer Screening Services

Background:

Greater Manchester Health & Social Care Partnership (GMHSCP) commissioned a set of Health Equity profiles, one for each of their seven Breast and Bowel Cancer Screening programmes, and a summary of the profiles of each of these two programmes across Greater Manchester.

What was the problem?

The Partnership wanted to fulfil their vision ‘to deliver the fastest and greatest improvement in the health and well-being of the 2.8 million people living across Greater Manchester’ to support “Achieving World Class Cancer Outcomes – A strategy for England 2015 – 2020” which set out the new five year cancer strategy for England. Local knowledge suggested variation within localities and across Greater Manchester.

How did PHAST help?

The PHAST team researched and reviewed a wide range of indicators for each of the local authority areas linked to the screening pathway, comparing outcomes within each area and across Greater Manchester. An equity profile employing a wide range of indicators was produced for each of the local authority areas including demography, ethnicity, deprivation, vulnerable groups, uptake, coverage and mortality. The Team identified good practice and areas where local effort could see improvements.

What was the Impact?

The equity reports indicated that Greater Manchester had varied coverage of breast and bowel cancer screening both within local screening programmes, across the Health and Social Care Partnership and when comparing Greater Manchester with its statistical nearest neighbours.

The PHAST team produced comparisons, graphically demonstrated by mapped demographic and socioeconomic data with screening uptake at GP surgery level, a powerful representation indicating areas for focused action to increase uptake rates. Infographics were provided for local use and final reports also allowed for future updating to track progress, as the client required.

The team provided a set of prioritised recommendations.