Hansard

I was going to address that point further on in my speech. I will do that, if that is all right with Elaine Smith.

The Clyde project has developed a community health pathway in the community of Burnhill in Rutherglen, which is the second most deprived community in South Lanarkshire. Through engagement with residents on the street, door to door and via local activity groups, the project has consulted 337 local residents.

Those are a few of the excellent projects that are currently under way. I have only just touched the surface.

It is vital that we continue to explore how screening can be more effective at reaching those who are in the greatest need. We will bring together all the learning that we have gathered from the projects into a cohesive and co-ordinated strategy to reduce screening inequalities.

We are complementing that work with our “Flower” cervical screening awareness campaign, which started running in cinemas yesterday and will be run across digital platforms from 28 January. The campaign targets 25 to 35-year-old women, who are less likely to attend. The campaign encourages women to take up their screening invitations and recommends that women who missed their last appointment—or who have never been screened—contact their general practitioner. I thank all the people who undertake vital work to raise awareness of the importance of cervical screening.

Finally, I will mention our cervical cancer vaccination programme, which we introduced in 2008. Since we introduced the programme, uptake rates have remained high and continue to exceed 80 per cent. The programme has been evaluated since it began and already shows encouraging and positive signs that the rate of cervical cancer that is caused by the HPV virus will reduce in the future. However, the vaccine does not protect against all cervical cancers. Therefore, regular screening is still important and will continue to be an essential part of our armoury for many years to come. We must continue the work to get that message out to young women.

I will address a couple of the issues that members raised during the debate. Emma Harper spoke about self-screening. Dumfries and Galloway NHS Board is carrying out a small-scale pilot in its area. We are looking at the possibility of a national pilot. The UK National Screening Committee is looking at the evidence for self-sampling, and we are awaiting its advice before proceeding further with that.

Miles Briggs and Alison Johnstone asked me about the potential of digital communications to encourage people to take up the invitation for screening. As part of the work under the cancer strategy, we will use learning—including digital and other technology—to develop future communication plans.

Elaine Smith asked me about homelessness. Through the cancer strategy, there are a number of projects in which we are looking at how screening services can be improved for hard-to-reach groups—which, of course, include women and men who are homeless, people with learning disabilities and people with mental health issues.

We who are here tonight share the same ambition—to make cervical screening accessible to all women across Scotland, regardless of where they live, by understanding and reducing the barriers that women face.

We all have a role in sharing the potentially life-saving messages about cervical screening with all the women in our lives. Together, let us nip cervical cancer in the bud.