I am today writing to our local Clinical Commissioning Group about the need for urgent action to increase cervical screening coverage.
More than 3,200 women a year in the UK are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 220,000 women are told they have abnormal cervical cells. Cervical screening prevents 75% of cervical cancers from developing, however uptake of potentially life-saving cervical screening uptake is declining.
I am concerned that screening coverage in our area is particularly low. Just 70.9% of 25-49 year olds in our CCG are up to date with their screening, compared to the national average of 72.0%. To increase coverage to the national target of 80%, over 18,000 additional eligible women in this age group need to be screened in our CCG area. Among women aged 50-64, over one in four women are not up to date, with coverage at just 79.1%
A recent ‘Health Matters’ set of resources, published by Public Health England outlines how local authorities, CCGs and GPs can all play a key role in raising awareness of cervical screening and encouraging women to attend screening. However, a report published by Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust in January, ‘Cervical Screening in the Spotlight’ (www.jostrust.org.uk/spotlight), shows that almost half (44%) of local authorities and almost two thirds (60%) of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in England have not undertaken any activities to increase cervical screening attendance in the last two years.
I shall be asking the CCG if they could let me know what activities they are undertaking, or plan to undertake, to work with GPs and the local authority to increase screening uptake in our area.