§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the trend in the 231W number of women accepting their invitations for breast screening; and what action his Department is taking to encourage women to attend. [101187]
1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 Coverage (women aged 50 to 64) 66.4 67.7 69.3 70.2 69.8 Uptake (women aged 50 to 64) 75.4 76.2 75.6 75.3 75.6 Notes:
1. The coverage of the screening programme is the proportion of women resident who have had a test result at least once in the previous three years.
2. The uptake of the screening programme is the proportion of women invited for screening for whom a screening test is recorded.
Source:
Statistical Bulletin—Breast Screening Programme, England
Women invited to participate in the NHS breast screening programme need to understand the potential benefits and harm in doing so to be able to make an informed choice about whether or not they wish to participate. That is why we developed and launched new informed choice information leaflets in 2001, which are sent out with every invitation for breast screening.
The NHS Cancer Plan stated that all primary care trusts should review their screening coverage rates and draw up plans to improve accessibility of screening for women in socially excluded and minority ethnic groups.