Cervical Screening Management System – go-live date confirmed letter

To:

Integrated care boards:

• chief executive officers
• chief medical officers
• general practice leads
• chief information officers
• chief clinical information officers
• chief nursing information officers
• primary care leads

Local IT teams

North of England Commissioning Support Unit:

• ­head of service [for cascade to cervical screening administration services]

All GP practices

NHS England:

• National Medical Director
• National Primary Care Medical Director
• National Director of Public Health
• heads of public health commissioning [for cascade to sexual health, laboratory and colposcopy providers’ chief executives]
• detained estates team
• regional directors of digital transformation
• regional medical directors
• regional primary care medical directors
• screening quality assurance service (SQAS)

cc:

North of England Commissioning Support Unit:

• clinical services
• operations director

NHS England:

• ­National Director for Primary Care
• Director of Primary Care Services
• regional directors of commissioning
• regional directors of primary care and public health

Dear colleagues,

For action: Cervical Screening Management System (CSMS) – go-live date confirmed

We wrote to you on 21 May 2024 to advise that we are in the final stages of testing CSMS – a new and improved IT system that will support the continued success of the NHS Cervical Screening Programme (NHS CSP).

CSMS will replace the current call/recall IT system which sits on the National Health Application and Infrastructure Services (NHAIS) platform and is nearly 35 years old. The transition to CSMS is a significant undertaking and has been carefully planned to maintain clinical safety and operational effectiveness.

We are pleased to confirm that we expect the new system to go live at 7am on Monday 24 June 2024. Once CSMS goes live, it will be accessed via an NHS smartcard; the Open Exeter system will no longer be accessible for the purposes of delivering NHS CSP services.

Through website and email updates, we will confirm on the day that CSMS has gone live, including where you can get technical support (if needed).

From this point forward, everyone should use CSMS instead of Open Exeter to conduct usual business relating to the NHS CSP administration, including call/recall activity.

All data will be transferred over to the new system during the preceding weekend (22-23 June 2024). There should be no disruption to NHS CSP services over this period.

Providers delivering cervical screening clinics and laboratory work, should continue to run services as normal across the weekend and in the days following go-live.

To ensure a seamless transition, it is crucial that any individuals or organisations who have not yet done so take the below actions:

By Monday 17 June 2024, all staff delivering NHS CSP services, including GP practices, administration staff in primary care, sample takers in primary care and sexual health services, laboratory and colposcopy staff, need to:

1. Carry out a check to confirm you can access CSMS:

• online guidance is available to support completing a CSMS access check and what to do if any problems are encountered
• if you have forgotten your smartcard pin, you can unlock and reset yourself using this new service (self-service smartcard unlock). Smartcard users need to have a valid email address on their care identity profile. Online guidance is available to check or add an email address to your profile

2. Complete both parts of CSMS training:

• Part 1 Introducing the new CSMS
• Part 2 Using the new CSMS
  • both are now live on the Learning Hub (to access, use your e-Learning for Health login)
  • training must be completed before using the new system

After CSMS has gone live, providers should update any internal operating procedures and documentation they have that supports delivery of cervical screening services, to reflect access to and how they use CSMS.

Additional actions for GP practices

GP practices are asked to take some additional actions before and after go-live:

1. Review and update email details held on Open Exeter ahead of go-live to continue to receive prior notification list (PNL) reminders and support effective call/recall of patients. Visit the Organisation Maintenance Screen on the main menu Application drop-down list. A generic email address, rather than a named individual’s email, should be used to avoid notifications being missed.
   If it needs changing, the practice’s primary contact/primary user on Open Exeter must email [email protected] requesting that the email address for cervical screening PNLs is updated. Please include the practice code/ODS code in the request.
2. Ensure that your PNLs are checked and processed in Open Exeter/NHAIS by Monday 17 June 2024.
3. Once CSMS has gone live, log on and click the notifications section to check that the contact email details for notifications are correct. If incorrect, please amend on CSMS.

Further information, support and full details about the steps colleagues need to take can be found on the CSMS guidance website.

If there is any concern that your organisation will not be able to take the actions in the required timeframe, please contact us at [email protected].

Integrated care boards are asked to seek assurance that the above actions have been taken or will be taken before CSMS goes live.

Thank you for all your support in ensuring a smooth transition to CSMS.

Yours faithfully,

Deborah Tomalin
Director of Screening
NHS England

Steve Russell
Chief Delivery Officer
NHS England