Cost of quality management and information provision for screening: colorectal cancer screening

Objective-To estimate the costs of a qualify management (QM) system as prop osed by the Quality Management for Screening report for a future national c olorectal cancer screening programme. Methods-Estimates of the costs of the QM system, including the associated c osts of education and training and information provision, were based on exp ert opinion, the existing literature, and the experience of the current Nat ional Health Service (NHS) breast cancer screening programme (BSP) and the NHS cervical cancer screening programme (CSP). Results-The cost of a QM system to support a national colorectal cancer pro gramme in the UK was estimated as approximately pound 3.8 million a year. F urther annual costs related to QM will include pound 500 000 for education and training and pound 200 000 for information provision. Adding these addi tional costs to a previously published UK economic evaluation of colorectal cancer screening increases the cost-utility ratio to approximately;pound 6 500 per quality adjusted life year gained (over an eight year follow up per iod). Conclusions-Any new screening programme, or an existing one, must have QM t o ensure that the quality of screening is high and to maintain the right ba lance between benefit and harm. The significant costs of such a QM system s hould be included in any economic evaluation of a screening programme.