Aims and ambitions
NHS sets ambition to eliminate cervical cancer by 2040.
The NHS cervical screening programme aims to reduce cervical cancer incidence and mortality. Cervical screening is for women and people with a cervix and is offered every 3 years from age 25 to 49 and every 5 years from age 50 to 64. It looks for abnormal cells in the cervix, which can develop into cancer if left untreated.
New figures cited in the NHS Cervical Screening Programme, England 2022-2023 annual report, published by NHS England show that three in ten of those eligible for cervical screening do not take up the potentially life-saving offer.
Within Cheshire and Merseyside, the rates of diagnosis of cervical cancer are among the highest in England and run much higher than the average for England. The majority of the women diagnosed are those that do not have a full cervical screening history.
Cervical screening saves thousands of lives from cervical cancer every year in the UK.
Who it's aimed at?
This toolkit has been created for Midwives to support efforts to increase the uptake of cervical screening across Cheshire and Merseyside. It has been developed by the Cheshire and Merseyside ICB Women’s Health and Maternity Programme, in conjunction with NHS England.
Health professionals who are having regular contact with patients can provide tailored information and advice to ensure people have high-quality health information available to them. In this way Midwives and other maternity staff (e.g., maternity support worker) are ideally placed to help women to make informed choices about cervical screening.
How learners will benefit from doing this course
This toolkit aims to equip Midwives with consistent information about cervical screening, to increase opportunities for raising awareness of the importance for attending for screening postnatally and reduce potential barriers to participation. Communicating with patients is key to understanding barriers which may influence a patient in their decision or ability to participate in screening. There can be many barriers to screening uptake, such as embarrassment, pain, anxiety, previous negative experience, history of trauma/abuse, disabilities, cultural issues, language, and communication difficulties. With support many people can overcome these barriers through discussion, information, education and reasonable adjustments, all principles that underpin the personalised care approach.
Completing the toolkit will enable Midwives to have more informed conversations about cervical screening with their patients. This will help improve screening rates across Cheshire and Merseyside and reduce the incidence of Cervical cancers.