Infectious diseases in pregnancy screening supporting information
Updated 8 October 2024
Applies to England
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/infectious-diseases-in-pregnancy-screening-programme-standards/infectious-diseases-in-pregnancy-screening-supporting-information
1. Introduction
These revised screening standards for the NHS infectious diseases in pregnancy screening programme (IDPS) replace previous versions. They apply to data collected from 1 April 2018 unless stated otherwise in the document.
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) recommends all eligible pregnant women are offered and recommended screening for HIV, hepatitis B and syphilis.
Some women may choose not to be screened or accept screening for some conditions and not others. It is important their choice is respected.
The IDPS programme has responsibility for implementing this policy. The service specification (No. 15) for providers is available as part of the public health functions exercised by NHS England.
We aim to make sure there is equal access to uniform and quality-assured screening across England and that families are provided with high quality information so they can make an informed choice about IDPS.
Where the offer of screening is declined for one or more of the 3 infections a process should be in place to notify the screening coordinator directly to facilitate a formal reoffer by 20 weeks’ gestation at a face-to-face meeting. This is to facilitate an informed choice, not to coerce women to accept screening. The screening handbook gives further guidance on the management of these women.
Screening guidance documents on GOV.UK may link to a central glossary of terms, ‘NHS population screening explained’ and NHS UK for definition of terms. To see the meaning of an acronym, hover over it with your cursor for the full definition.
2. Summary of changes from previous version of standards
We have made minor changes to the wording of standards where necessary.
IDPS-S02: coverage: hepatitis B
We have introduced this standard as the key performance indicator ID3
IDPS-S03: coverage: syphilis
We have introduced this standard as the key performance indicator ID4
3. Pathway themes
NHS IDPS screening standards look at 5 themes to assess the pathway and 4 KPIs are derived from standards 1, 2, 3 and 6.
Theme: coverage
Related standards are:
IDPS-S01: coverage: HIV
IDPS-S02: coverage: hepatitis B
IDPS-S03: coverage: syphilis
Theme: test
Related standard is:
IDPS-S04: test: turnaround times HIV, hepatitis B, syphilis
Theme: referral
Related standard is:
IDPS-S05: referral: timely assessment of screen positive and known positive women
Theme: diagnosis/intervention
Related standard is:
IDPS-S06: diagnosis/intervention: timely assessment of women with hepatitis B
Theme: intervention/treatment
Related standard is:
IDPS-S07: intervention/treatment: timely neonatal hepatitis B vaccination and immunoglobulin
4. Resources to support providers and commissioners
Additional IDPS operational guidance is included in the:
5. Reporting and publishing standards
We publish annual standards and quarterly KPI data.
We share the data with NHS England before publication.
Services can also access the quarterly KPI submission templates.