Cervical Screening

Every Week is Cervical Cancer Prevention Week

My name is Dr Sapna Patel.  I am Lead General Practitioner at Jai Medical Centre (Brent).

All women and people with a cervix between the ages of 25 and 64 are eligible for regular cervical screening; women are invited for screening every 3 years from age 25-49, and every 5 years from 50-64.

It is estimated that cervical screening saves approximately 2,000 lives a year across England. What is concerning is uptake is at a 20-year low. Public Health England (PHE) launched a national campaign in March in response to a year-on-year decline in the number of women responding to invitations and taking up appointments for screening.

At Jai Medical Centre we want to continuously raise awareness through emails and text messaging to encourage attendance for cervical screening.

There are many reasons women don’t attend cervical screenings – fear of discomfort or pain, embarrassment or a lack of knowledge about the procedure. However, the test should take under 5 minutes, and recent Public Health England (PHE) research shows that once women have been screened, the vast majority (87%) are ‘glad they went’ and 84% say that they were ‘put at ease by the nurse or doctor doing the test’.

What I would say to women who are worried about attending is, we want to make it easy for you; you can ask for a female nurse or doctor, you can bring a chaperone if it makes you more comfortable. We will tell you anything you need to know – there’s no such thing as a stupid question! We’re here to help.”  If you wish to discuss this, do not hesitate to contact the practice and make appointment with our Nurse Practitioner Bandana Aeri and Andrea Esanu.

More information about cervical screening can be found at:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/cervical-screening/ and

https://www.jostrust.org.uk/about-cervical-cancer/cervical-screening

Cervical Screening Fact Sheets in different languages

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