§ 44. Mr. Meadowcroftasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will encourage the earlier screening of women for cervical cancer by lowering the qualifying age of patients for which general practitioners get a specific fee in respect of such tests.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeNo. The Committee on Gynaecological Cytology has recently recommended that symptomless women should be screened at ages 20, 25, 30 and 35 so as to rationalise and reduce the number of unnecessary smears taken on younger women. However, the priority group—those women at greatest risk—still remains the over-35 group and those women who have had three or more pregnancies. Although priority group women are at greatest risk they are currently screened less frequently than the younger age group. Payments to general medical practitioners are designed, therefore, to encourage them to screen the priority group.