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Aortic Aneurysm: Screening

Answer

The NHS Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm screening programme has cost £5,335,809.50 up to the end of March 2010. This is made up of start up and full year costs for six early implementation sites, start up costs for four phase one sites, screening equipment for 10 sites, training of technicians and information leaflets.It is anticipated that there will be a maximum of eight phases of roll out, however the exact number is unknown as this depends on the number of applications received and geographical fit of each local screening programme.The following national health service trusts have been successful with their applications to begin ultrasound screening for aortic aneurysms:

Phase	Screening Programme	NHS Trust
Early Implementation	Gloucestershire	Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Early Implementation	West Sussex	Royal West Sussex NHS Trust
Early Implementation	South West London	St George's Healthcare Trust
Early Implementation	South Devon and Exeter	South Devon Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Early Implementation	South Manchester	Central Manchester and Manchester Children's University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Early Implementation	Leicestershire	University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust
Phase 1	Peninsula	Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust
Phase 1	Heartlands	Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust
Phase 1	South East London	Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital NHS Trust
Phase 1	North East	Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust
Phase 1	North Central London	The Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust
Phase 1	North West London	Imperial Healthcare NHS Trust
Phase 1	East Yorkshire and The Humber	Hull and East Yorkshire Hospital NHS Trust

It is anticipated that full national roll out of the Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm screening programme will be completed by the end of 2012-13.The following table details the numbers of patients screened in phase one after a) oneyear and b) five years:

Screening Programme	Year One	Year Five
Peninsula	4,369	29,512
South East London	4,818	32,548
North East	11,598	78,350
Heartlands	3,364	22,721
North Central London	3,966	26,789
North West London	7,349	49,648
East Yorkshire and The Humber	4,199	28,363

All phase one sites will be screening by the end of May 2010.The national programme team have put in place a number of measures to ensure the highest possible take up of screening once men have been identified for screening through their general practitioner. Examples include:"Involving 65 year old men when developing the initial communication materials for the screening programme to ensure that key messages were targeted at the right level;""National information leaflets have been designed for use in local programmes to ensure consistency of messages and offer informed choice;""Recruiting a Communications manager to work with local programmes ensuring that the right information is promoted to suit their local demographic; and""Commissioning an independent evaluation of all information to assess:""whether the patient information materials met the needs of men invited for screening""how well men invited for screening understand the risks they may face and;""assess how well health professionals think the information meets the needs of men invited for screening and the programme itself."

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

506 c1394-6W; 320049

Session

2009-10

Subjects

Screening Aortic aneurysm

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk