ONE-THIRD of women in some areas of Glasgow do not go for a smear test regularly, despite a nationwide programme offering screening every three years.
Figures from the Public Health Screening Programmes Annual Report show that across the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde area only 75.1% of eligible women attend their appointments for cervical screening. In some parts of the city, the rate drops to just 65.7%.
All women aged between 20 and 60 years are invited every three years for cervical screening, which is thought to prevent eight out of 10 cancers from developing. Experts say screening saves around 5000 lives each year, with about 300 new cases of cervical cancer diagnosed annually in Scotland.
Emilia Crighton, consultant in public health medicine at NHS Greatear Glasgow and Clyde said: "While the majority of women who are invited for a smear test attend, it is extremely worrying that in some areas approximately one in three women are not having their regular cervical screening.
"Regular cervical screening is the best way for women to protect themselves against cervical cancer. We are working on developing ways of encouraging women to attend their appointment and I would strongly urge everyone is receives their invitation to take up the offer."
The figures show that in Glasgow North West only 65.7% of women attend their smear test. The rates reach 71.7% in Glasgow North East and 74.6% in Glasgow South.
Cervical screening tests for early changes in the cells caused by human papillomavirus (HPV). Ms Crighton said that while it was rare for HPV to develop into cervical cancer, screening was the only way to spot any potential problems.
She added: "There are usually no symptoms with an HPV infection and sometimes no symptoms with early stage cervical cancer, so the only way to really check and make sure everything is okay is to attend your cervical screening test every three years."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article