Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 24 June 2021
Four health boards have requested funding to provide additional clinics: Lanarkshire, £28,000; Lothian, £8,098; Greater Glasgow and Clyde, £5,000; and Fife, £2,700. No other boards have requested funding, but we are happy to keep the situation under review and will provide further funding if needed.
We have also provided extra funding to Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust. I fully appreciate how worrying the situation will be for people who have been affected. Everyone who is affected will receive a personalised letter from their health board to apologise for the situation and provide information about the incident in the cervical screening programme. Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust has made its helpline available nationally for women to call. I advise against women contacting their GP to find out whether they have been affected. I assure them that anyone who has been identified as incorrectly excluded from the programme, because they have a subtotal hysterectomy, will receive a letter directly from their health board. Those who are within the age range for the screening programme will be asked to contact their GP to make a screening appointment.
The one exception that I make to that is that our advice remains that people should contact their GP straightaway if they experience symptoms of cervical cancer, which are unusual discharge, or bleeding after sex, between periods or after the menopause. Those symptoms are generally caused by something else, but it is vitally important that women who experience those symptoms attend their GP and have them checked out.