Guidance

Reporting and managing screening incidents flowchart

Updated 10 October 2024

The Patient Safety Incident Response Framework will replace the Serious Incident Framework on 1 April 2024. This means that organisations operating under the NHS Standard Contract must apply PSIRF principles in their approach to learning from safety events.

As safety incidents within screening programmes may have implications wider than individual services, it is important that potential screening incidents continue to be reported to the Screening QA Service and local public health commissioning teams, using the SIAF

The Managing Screening guidance (2015) is being updated to reflect the PSIRF and the new version will be published here.

If you are unsure who to contact please contact the National QA service using the email address: [email protected]


1. Screening incident suspected

2. Is it a serious incident?

Yes: Declare serious incident and produce 72 hour report. Manage and investigate incident. Produce and review incident report. Close incident. Identify lessons and take actions. End of pathway.

No (requires further discussion): Provider seeks advice from SQAS. Go to question 3.

3. Is SIAF required?

Yes: Complete SIAF and agree incident classification. Go to question 4.

No: Follow internal governance process: SQAS not involved. End of pathway.

4. Serious incident confirmed?

Yes: Declare serious incident and produce 72 hour report. Manage and investigate incident. Produce and review incident report. Close incident. Identify lessons and take actions. End of pathway.

No: Follow appropriate process for incident classification. End of pathway.