§ Mrs. Clwydasked the Secretary of State for Wales if he is satisfied with cancer screening facilities in Wales; and how many computer-based call and recall schemes exist in Wales, by area health authority.
§ Mr. Wyn RobertsPopulation based schemes of screening for cancer have been developed for only a small number of types of this disease. The best example of such a scheme is the cervical cytology service which is the only one to have been introduced nationally to cover an age/sex based section of the population. As I have already said in the reply on cervical cancer screening, given to the hon. Member for Alyn and Deeside (Mr. Jones) on 22 March at column627, a working group is being set up to examine urgently the adequacy of the present provision of the service and necessary future developments. Some health authorities in Wales screen women for breast cancer, but because the relative effectiveness of different screening procedures is still under study there is no nationally agreed
1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 West Glamorgan Number of registrations of cervical cancer* 55 47 55 34 N/A Number of deaths from cervical cancer* 23 20 23 19 9 Percentage of women receiving cervical cancer screening† 16.5 16.3 17.2 15.8 17.6 Wales Number of registrations of cervical cancer* 320 333 343 246 NA Number of deaths from cervical cancer* 136 125 133 119 136 Percentage of women receiving cervical cancer screening† 14.2 15.6 16.7 15.8 17.0 * Malignant neoplasm of the cervix uteri. † Calculated as the total number of cases examined as a percentage of all women aged 15–64. This total includes some multiple tests. Information on the other countries of the United Kingdom is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretaries of State for Social Services, Scotland and Northern Ireland.