Publish date: 13 April 2026
What is an SSP and how do we support the North of Tyne Bowel Cancer Screening Programme?
Specialist screening practitioners, affectionately known as SSPs, are a nurse-led team providing the screening service for patients taking part in the bowel cancer screening programme.
We are currently a team of 14 nurses, including a lead nurse. We are a shared service for Northumbria Healthcare and Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trusts.
The lead SSP and programme manager oversee the SSPs and admin team, but we are part of a much wider family including endoscopy, radiology, histopathology, IBD (inflammatory bowel disease), and colorectal, to name but a few.
Our patch is the North of Tyne, covering Newcastle, Northumberland and North Tyneside. We are employed by Northumbria Healthcare and hold an honorary contract with Newcastle Hospitals.
We work in hospitals and medical centres across the patch: Alnwick Community Hospital, Wansbeck General Hospital, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Freeman Hospital, Morpeth NHS Centre, Newcastle Hospitals at Cramlington Manor Walks, Hexham General Hospital, Benfield Park Healthcare and Diagnostic Centre, and North Tyneside General Hospital.
Our role is to follow patients from their first clinic appointment – after they have provided their initial home-testing kit – to discharge. We understand how worrying a time it can be for someone thinking they may have cancer, so we are there for them every step of the way.
A patient’s journey may bring them into contact with different services - endoscopy, radiology, pathology, pharmacy, gastroenterology – and our role is to make that as simple and seamless as possible.
This includes:
- Speaking to patients at their first clinic appointment and answering questions
- Giving results
- Acting as a patient advocate
- Following up patient outcomes
- Assessing suitability for screening investigations
- Calling patients after a procedure like a colonoscopy to check on them
- Attending meetings with other professionals involved in patient care
- Health promotion activities and education
- Coordinating best interest meetings
- Managing Lynch syndrome surveillance (involving regular colonoscopies)
Suzanne Nicholson, specialist screening practitioner (SSP)