§ Dr. FoxTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the answer of 18 March 2002,Official Report, column 167W, how (a) his Department and (b) the local primary care trust is measuring the success of attempts to increase uptake of cervical screening among Asian women. [57094]
§ Ms BlearsThe coverage of the cervical screening programme is assessed as the proportion of women resident in a health authority who have had a screening result at least once in the last five years. Coverage has always been used as an indicator of quality in the cervical screening programme, as well as highlighting inequalities. Coverage rates for cervical screening are not collected by ethnic group nationally.
The new informed choice leaflet, "Cervical Screening: The Facts", which is sent out with every invitation for screening nationally, has been translated into Gujarati, Punjabi, Urdu, Bengali and Hindi.
The NHS Cancer Plan required all primary care organisations to review their screening coverage rates and draw up plans to improve accessibility of screening for women in socially excluded and minority ethnic groups.
722WLuton Primary Care Trust continues to monitor the uptake of cervical screening among Asian women through working with local general practices to promote cervical screening and from statistics collected from the local sexual health clinics.