Those of you who work in the NHS and deliver the NHS infectious diseases in pregnancy screening (IDPS) programme will be aware of the hepatitis B quality improvement project, which aims to significantly improve the care and services for pregnant women living with hepatitis B and their babies.
Coronavirus
We had hoped to launch the project earlier this year (2020), but as you all know only too well, the world then changed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
However, work on this important piece of work did not stop during this time. The IDPS team in Public Health England (PHE) Screening continued to work with colleagues in the national immunisation and bloodborne virus teams at PHE Colindale and the Public Health Commissioning Operations team in NHS England and Improvement.
Preparing for launch
Over the next few months PHE Screening will be:
- launching new hepatitis B pages on GOV.UK where you can find all the latest information and resources
- launching a new IDPS e-learning package
- delivering short online training sessions with practical ‘start-to-finish’ pathway review tips
- publishing new national screening and immunisation guidelines and supporting resources
- offering ongoing one-to-one support and advice to maternity unit screening teams
Call to action
We will be asking screening teams in maternity services to work with their public health commissioning, screening and immunisation, and screening quality assurance service (SQAS) teams to:
- review their current hepatitis B screening pathway to identify any potential gaps in service delivery and multidisciplinary communications
- develop an action plan to address them locally
- use the new resources to support care
Further updates
Keep an eye on the PHE Screening blog for further information on ‘go live’ dates. We will be communicating directly with screening coordinators, commissioners, screening and immunisation teams and SQAS teams about how to how to sign up for the online training sessions when they become available.
In the meantime, if you have any questions please contact us via the PHE Screening helpdesk.
PHE Screening blog
The PHE Screening blog provides up to date news from all NHS screening programmes. You can register to receive updates direct to your inbox, so there’s no need to keep checking for new blogs. If you have any questions about this blog article, or about population screening in England, please contact the PHE screening helpdesk.