Calls for at home cervical cancer screenings
Glasgow women are unable to receive home testing for cervical cancer.
Only one health board across the whole of Scotland offers women self-sampling tests for the disease, a freedom of information (FoI) request has found.
According to a FoI request by Scottish Labour, NHS Dumfries and Galloway are the only board to have undertaken a pilot scheme which supplies women who didn’t turn up for their smear appointments with at home kits.
The Scottish Government committed to improving this testing within a year, in 2021, when the Women’s Health Plan was published.
The plan highlights how there is an “unequal uptake” of women attending screenings due to socio-economic factors and barriers such as past trauma, stigma and difficulty accessing screenings.
Statistics by Public Health Scotland, published in 2023 show that 62.4% of eligible women from deprived areas attended screenings, compared to an uptake of 73.1% of women from least deprived areas in 2021/22.
For many, attending a screening for cervical cancer can be daunting and is a key reason why women miss appointments.
A spokeswoman from Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland, said: “For many women there are barriers to attending screening appointments including caring, childcare responsibilities, stigma and embarrassment about the process.
“Testing out the benefits of the self-sampling kits should be encouraged but also we need to do more, including around vaccination and education so that women in Scotland are fully protected.”
Smear tests are currently offered to 25-64 year-olds every five years to test for Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), which causes 99% of cervical cancers.
Speaking to PA Media, Scottish Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health Jenni Minnto, said: “Cervical cancer self-sampling has the potential to overcome some of the barriers that prevent people attending a screening appointment, however, the UK National Screening Committee is yet to recommend its use in the screening programme.
“We are monitoring the situation closely, and laying the groundwork for a potential rollout, so we can implement it as soon as possible when a recommendation is made.”
There has been no indication of when other health boards will begin implementing this testing option.
