Dr. Lorraine Doherty:

I will answer the question about communication in the context of public information and professional information. My background is in the NHS and whenever I have had to deal with a loss of confidence or another crisis in a service, communications have always been one of the learning elements that need to be addressed. It is fundamentally important that we get this right.

As I have only recently joined the service, I have not been involved in the most recent update of our public and patient information, which is very impressive and can be seen on our website. Ms Tait will speak about this a bit more in a few minutes. Communication is fundamentally important to the programme. Everything needs to be open and the professional communication needs to be well informed and well developed with professionals. A programme of work is ongoing to enhance the communication arrangements within the service for members of the public, patients and the health professionals involved in the programme. We are working on redeveloping the information for health professionals in the context of the move to HPV primary screening and we are developing new educational resources for health professionals. We are also establishing new lines of communication with our consultant colleagues, whom I met yesterday, to ensure they are kept fully up to date with guidelines and information on the programme.

Ms Tait will speak about the new information being made available to the public.