This week is Cervical Screening Awareness Week – a week to celebrate cervical screening and share the importance of getting your smear test regularly.
We all try our best to stay healthy, like brushing our teeth, exercising and eating well – but other parts of your body need looking after too!
If you’re aged between 25 and 60, and have a cervix, it will need a regular check-up.
The best and easiest way to make sure your cervix is healthy is to get your smear test (cervical screening)!
Cervical screening is a free health test that checks for HPV (Human Papillomavirus).
HPV usually has no symptoms and if left untreated causes dangerous cell damage in the cervix. This damage will then lead to more serious conditions in the future.
We’re passionate about making sure that patients know about cervical screening and have all the information they need to book an appointment.
Wanting to empower more patients to come in and get their smear test, a dedicated set of staff members formed The Cervical Smear Project!
Originally starting at The Whitswood Practice and then moving to include The Robert Darbishire Practice, patients who hadn’t had a smear test in the time frame for their age, or had previously declined, were contacted through a number of phone calls.
Thanks to Answer Cancer and Voice of BME Trafford, we were also able to contact patients with different first languages, and offer the important information they needed in a language that suited them.
We’re pleased to share that through conversations and knowledge sharing, a huge 37% more patients were screened at The Whitswood Practice, and 42% more patients were screened at The Robert Darbishire Practice compared to pre-pandemic levels.
We know there’s lots of reasons that might put you off getting your smear test. From fear to embarrassment, shame to misunderstanding, we hope to empower you all to book and attend your test and squash any fears you have about cervical screening.
Keep an eye on our social media channels this week to see our answers to the top 4 worries our patients have about smear tests, and to learn more about the test and its benefits.
If you have any questions or concerns about cervical screening, we’re always here to help. Get in touch with us today to speak to a member of our nursing team.