§ Lord STONEasked Her Majesty's Government:
- (1) when the project of screening for routine cervical cytology was initially instituted;
- (2) what annual statistics and results have been gathered to date;
- (3) how much longer the screening will continue in the light of (2); and
- (4) what is the total and annual cost of the project.
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLRoutine screening for cervical cancer under the national scheme began in 1967. Statistics1608WA are produced annually from returns from pathology laboratories and from report forms returned to the National Health Service Central Register. These show that the cytology screening service has been expanding, until recently, at about 7 per cent. a year, and that, in 1976, over 2½ million tests were carried out in England and Wales. The death rate for cancer of the cervix in England and Wales has fallen from 99 per million females in 1967 to 87 per million in 1976, and the extent to which this reduction is due to the screening programme is the subject of continuing research.
The Committee on Gynaecological Cytology, which advises the Department of Health and Social Security on policy in this field, monitors the development of the service in the light of current medical research and the annual statistics. The Committee remains convinced of the service's continuing value. Its view is that the most effective use of the service is to screen at five-year intervals the group most at risk from cancer of the cervix, that is women aged 35 and over and younger women who have had three or more pregnancies.
The estimated cost of the cervical cytology service, including recall at five-year intervals, for 1976–77 was about £10 million for England and Wales.