§ Mr. Robin CookTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list all district health authorities which operate a computerised call/recall cervical cytology programme for all women aged 20 to 65 years at three-yearly intervals.
§ Mr. FreemanI refer the hon. Member to my hon. Friend's reply to the hon. Member for Stretford (Mr. Lloyd) on 16 February at column345.
§ Mr. Robin CookTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will list all those district health authorities which have not yet called all women aged 20 to 65 years for a cervical cancer smear;
(2) if he will list the uptake of women called for a cervical cancer smear for each district health authority; and if he will list those district health authorities which are unable to provide these statistics.
§ Mr. FreemanHC(88)1 stated that all women aged between 20 and 64 years should be invited for a cervical smear test within five years of implementation of computerised call and recall systems, unless their GP has indicated that they should be excluded. We are not, therefore, expecting all district health authorities to have completed this task until March 1993—five years from when their computerised systems became operational. Information on the number of eligible women screened for cervical cancer is expected to become available later this year when we receive health authorities' returns from KÖrner form KC53—"Adult screening programmes—cervical cytology".
A copy of HC(88)1 is available in the Library.