Cervical Screening Timescales

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:10 pm on 11 January 2022.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:10, 11 January 2022

Well, I thank the Member for those important points, Llywydd. First of all, to say, of course, if anybody feels that their health is changing and that things may not be as they would want them to be, they shouldn't wait for screening, they should present themselves to their GP and make sure that their health needs are attended to immediately. So, where people, who know their own bodies best, feel there are changes happening, there is no suggestion here at all that people must wait for five years to find out whether that is the case or not. That's not the purpose of screening. That is why people should go and make sure they present and get the necessary investigations undertaken. 

Can I echo what the Member said at the end of what she said? About 25 per cent of people don't present themselves to the screening service. And in a perverse way, I understand, but, in the same way that that very sad story of Jade Goody drew more attention from people and more people came forward for screening, maybe the fact that this has been in the news in the way it has will at least be reminding some people that that service is there and what a successful service it is, and how important it is to come forward for it. And I know that Public Health Wales is very committed to doing everything it can now to make sure that proper information, accurate information, information that will help people to make the right choices in this area—that they do even more to try and put that story right, because, as I said, the frustration is that things have improved so much in this area, for both of those reasons, the vaccination programme and the changes to screening, that we want people to understand that the changes are there as a result of success and don't in any way undermine the efficiency and effectiveness of the service that is there for them.