Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help increase the (a) accessibility of smear tests for working women and (b) coverage of cervical cancer screening in Coventry North West constituency; how many smear tests were provided by the NHS in Coventry North West constituency in each year since 2015; and what steps she is taking to help improve cancer survival rates.
Efforts are ongoing to make it easier for all women to attend their cervical screening appointments by expanding the number of settings for cervical screening and making more appointments available during evenings and on weekends.
The following table shows the number of eligible women who have attended their cervical screening appointment in Coventry in each year since 2015:
Screening year | Coverage: 25 to 49 years old (%) | Coverage: 50 to 64 years old (%) | Coverage: 25 to 64 years old (%) |
2014/15 | 68.8 | 79.2 | 71.7 |
2015/16 | 67.3 | 78.6 | 70.5 |
2016/17 | 67.0 | 77.8 | 70.1 |
2017/18 | 65.6 | 76.7 | 68.7 |
2018/19 | 65.7 | 76.1 | 68.7 |
2019/20 | 65.1 | 74.9 | 67.9 |
2020/21 | 63.2 | 73.9 | 66.3 |
2021/22 | 60.5 | 73.1 | 64.1 |
2022/23 | 57.1 | 72.5 | 61.4 |
Source: Cervical Screening Programme official statistics, NHS England