Can you spare a few minutes to complete a short survey?
Cervical screening, which used to be called a smear test, is a test to check the health of the cervix and help prevent cervical cancer. It's offered to women and people with a cervix aged 25 to 64.
There have been recent changes to cervical cancer screening:
- It’s now easier to book your cervical screening appointment with the NHS App ‘ping and book’ service.
- From July, for most people, cervical cancer screening has moved from 3 to 5 years.
- In the new NHS 10 Year Health Plan, those who have missed screenings are to be offered convenient human papillomavirus (HPV) self-sampling kits. This is not the cervical cancer screen; however, if you test positive for HPV, you will then be contacted to attend a cervical cancer screen appointment.
The latest statistics for Oldham show that 67.5% of 25 to 49 year olds have attended their most recent cervical cancer screening, which is in line with the national average, but there is a downward trend in attendance.
Oldham has recorded the 4th lowest uptake across Greater Manchester (GM), and there are big differences between GP practices, with the rate of the highest performing practice being 80% and the lowest performing practice being 42%.
We hope the survey and focus group findings help contribute to a better understanding of barriers to cervical cancer screening and what increased accessibility (and thus uptake) looks like in Oldham, to support the ambitious NHS goal of eliminating cervical cancer by 2040.
Please note, all questions are completely voluntary, and the data collected will be kept confidential and stored securely.
