Young Women Missing Cervical Smears

18 October 2011, 05:00

More work's being done to get young women in Berkshire attending their cervical cancer screenings appointments.

Heart's found out extra sessions are being set up on Saturday mornings at some GP practices.

Between April and June this year, 78.06% of women turned up to their appointments in Berkshire East, with 81.12% attending in Berkshire West during the same period.

NHS Berkshire West's Assistant Director of Public Health Kelechi Nnoaham told us it's more likely that young women don't go to their smear tests.

He told us why it's so important for them to go:

"Cervical cancer is avoidable in terms of adverse outcomes, the adverse consequences of cervical cancer such as death are completely avoidable, especially if you can catch it early."

Health workers across Berkshire are working with GP's to find out why the attendance rate is higher in some areas.

Kelechi told us what's being done:

"We also have a top ten tips, particularly in the East of the county where we give tips to GP's on how they can increase their uptake rate.

"Things like making sure there's a cervical cytology lead in the practice, giving women flexible appointments, working with practices to help them identify women who didn't attend their appointments and follow them up actively."

In Oxfordshire, 78.2% of eligible women have attended screenings in the past five years.