The NICaN Modernising Endoscopy Services (MES) Project was established in August 2007 to prepare colonoscopy services for the introduction of the regional Bowel Cancer Screening Programme. In April 2010 the Bowel Cancer Screening Programme was established. By then the majority of the objectives of the original MES Project had been fulfilled; therefore, the original project will end on 31st December 2010.

In recognition that a considerable body of work remains to modernise upper GI endoscopy services and to ensure the provision of a high quality, standards driven GI endoscopy service into the future, the MES Project Board was re-constituted in June 2010.

The MES Project Board is now chaired by Dr Miriam McCarthy, Deputy Secretary for Healthcare Policy at the DHSSPS. Also on the Project Board are the HSCB Directors for Commissioning and Performance Management and Service Improvement, the Assistant Director responsible for Screening in the PHA and the Medical Director of NICaN, Dr Dermot Hughes. The Board is currently leading two strands of work as part of the continuing regional drive to modernise endoscopy services; the first is a service improvement project aimed at ensuring the appropriateness of referrals for upper GI endoscopy and the second is a piece of work to agree the best way to ensure the provision of a standards driven GI endoscopy service into the future.
 

For further information about the service improvement project, contact Mrs Rosemary Hulatt, Programme Manager Diagnostic Services, HSCB rosemary.hulatt@hscni.net  

For further information about the work on standards for endoscopy services into the future, contact Ms Mary Maguire, Director, Health Facilities Planning, DHSSPS, mary.maguire@dhsspsni.gov.uk  

Enquiries about endoscopy training should be directed to Dr Colin Rodgers colin.rodgers@northerntrust.hscni.net