HC Deb 29 March 1965 vol 709 cc1185-8
43. Mr. Braine

asked the Minister of Health what further steps he is taking to expedite the provision of nationwide facilities for the routine cancer screening of women.

Mr. K. Robinson

Good progress is being made. About 39,000 women a month are now being tested, mainly in hospital clinics, and the number will increase as more staff are trained. There are already about 200 pathologists and 150 medical laboratory technicians trained in cytology and more are undergoing training or awaiting places on the courses. Of the hospital laboratories handling this work about a quarter expect to be able to support a routine screening service some time this year.

Mr. Braine

The whole House will be very pleased to hear about what progress has been made, but is the Minister aware that about 3,500 women die every year from cancer of the cervix and the uterus, and is he further aware that many women are at risk below 35, the age at which it is proposed that screening should begin? Will he not agree, in view of the tragic toll and the obvious urgent priority here, that facilities for earlier screening, certainly for those women who apply for it, ought to be provided, and, if this means a greater allocation of resources, could he not persuade his colleagues to make them available?

Mr. Robinson

As the hon. Gentleman knows as well as most people in the House, we regard this as a most important priority. I think that a good start has been made. At the end of last year, tests were running at an annual rate of 470,000, which is encouraging. There is some risk to women under 35 years of age, but my advisers say that this is the best minimum age at which to start routine screening. We must make a limited start, but, when we get the facilities going, we can extend them to younger women.

Mr. Snow

Although the House will be grateful to my right hon. Friend for the advances in the service which he has been able to announce, is he aware that there is a greater preoccupation with this matter among women now arising largely from the publicity which has been given to the statistics involved and many women are beginning to worry greatly because of this publicity? Will my right hon. Friend take it that any further resources which he can make available for this project will be much appreciated?

Mr. Robinson

I can well understand that the very considerable publicity which has been given to the service, which I personally welcome very much, may have given rise to additional anxiety on the part of some women who are in the group at risk, but I can assure my hon. Friend that we are really pressing ahead as fast as we can. The special courses for pathologists and technicians are now running at five centres and all regional boards are sending people for training there. When those who have been trained go back to their own base, they themselves can embark on training in their own local hospitals.

Mr. Dudley Smith

While I appreciate what has been done, may I ask the right hon. Gentleman to bear in mind that I have recently had a case of a woman constituent of mine who is barely 35 and had all the symptoms of cervical cancer and was told by a London teaching hospital that it would take four or five weeks before she could be screened? Will he bear in mind the tremendous agony of mind in such a case, and do all that he can to press on with his plans?

Mr. Robinson

I will certainly bear that in mind. I do not like commenting on a particular case without notice, but I should have thought that it would have been possible somewhere in London for the woman to have got an earlier smear test analysis, particularly if she showed symptoms.

Mr. Lubbock

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that a far more extensive service is being provided at Orpington Hospital than is available under the National Health Service? Is he aware that not only is the service being extended to a lower age but screening will be once in three years instead of five years? Will he say that he welcomes this initiative? Also, what steps is the Ministry taking with regard to research into the electronic scanning of slides so that the number of people who need to be trained for this purpose can be kept to the minimum and the service can be introduced more rapidly?

Mr. Robinson

We are looking very carefully into various methods of examining slides, into biochemical as well as electronic scanning, but I am advised that it will be some years before we shall know whether these methods are reliable or not. I certainly welcome the initiative in the hon. Gentleman"s constituency, about which he came to tell me.

Lord Balniel

As the right hon. Gentleman accepts that there is very widespread concern about the matter, is he still maintaining the position that he is not prepared to increase the number of training facilities which are available for cytologists? Would he perhaps look again into the number of training places available with a view to the possibility of increasing them?

Mr. Robinson

I have looked at them, and so far as I am aware they should be quite sufficient to do the job that we want to do in a reasonable time. We have also got, as I have told the hon. Gentleman, 200 pathologists and 150 technicians trained, and 29 pathologists and 74 technicians are at the moment undergoing training in the special centres. There have been many more nominated for future courses.