Today, two women in England will die from cervical cancer. Deaths that could’ve been prevented by early regular screening.
Nationally, the number of women attending cervical screening is at a twenty year low. In London one third of women are not going to their screening appointment.
The table below shows top and bottom London boroughs ranked by the percentage of women screened for cervical cancer.
Rank |
London borough |
% |
1 of 33 |
Bexley |
73.8 |
2 of 33 |
Havering |
73.1 |
3 of 33 |
Bromley |
72.8 |
4 of 33 |
Sutton |
72.5 |
5 of 33 |
Croydon |
69.5 |
28 of 33 |
Tower Hamlets |
59.7 |
29 of 33 |
City of London |
57.2 |
30 of 33 |
Hammersmith and Fulham |
55.8 |
31 of 33 |
Camden |
55.1 |
32 of 33 |
Westminster |
53.0 |
33 of 33 |
Kensington and Chelsea |
51.6 |
It’s not comfortable, knowing how important screening is, that even in the best performing London boroughs screening is lower than the 80% ambition set by Public Health England (PHE).
With our support London’s women can do much better.
We need to have more conversations with women in our consultation rooms about screening being a normal part of their health routine and to encourage women to pick up and go to missed appointments.
PHE has created a number of helpful resources to support discussions with women. From information cards that patients can take away to interactive information for social media.
There are also stickers available for GPs and practice staff. All resources can be ordered for free on the cervical screening section of the PHE website.
PHE has created this information sheet for London GPs giving you an overview of the issue and where you can order the resources for your surgery.
We will be sharing messages supporting screening starting in July on our twitter account @MyHealthLondon.
Together we can prevent future deaths from cervical cancer.
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