Hansard

I begin by thanking Ruth Maguire for securing this important debate, and I thank her for sharing her experience. I take this opportunity to commend the work of Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust.

I apologise to members, as I have to leave early to chair a cross-party group meeting. I am grateful to you, Presiding Officer, for permission to do so.

I believe that members across the chamber are united in the belief that cervical cancer can and should be beaten once and for all, but statistics show that, unfortunately, we are going backwards when it comes to ending this disease. The roll-out of self-sampling is too slow, and those with abnormal smear tests face waits of a year for colposcopy appointments, while inequalities for women in the poorest communities continue to rise.

The World Health Organization calls for 70 per cent of women globally to be screened regularly for cervical cancer but, according to Public Health Scotland, women from the most deprived areas of the country are less likely to take part, with uptake reaching only 63 per cent there. As we have heard, 45 per cent of women between the ages of 25 and 29 have not attended a screening at all, which suggests that younger women are less likely to come forward for their smear test.

There are several reasons why that might be happening. It can be down to an experience of trauma, concern about pain, inaccessible general practices or even a lack of information and time. That is why Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust has asked the Scottish Government to roll out new tests such as HPV self-sampling. The trust surveyed more than 800 professionals working in and alongside cancer prevention, and 70 per cent of them said that they thought that HPV self-sampling provided the biggest opportunity to eliminate cervical cancer in the UK. Although it is important to ensure that clinician-led screening is still encouraged and supported, allowing for self-sampling will certainly begin to address the low numbers of people coming forward.

Cervical cancer will not be tackled by addressing screening uptake alone. The process for addressing abnormalities and examining the cervix in the aftermath of a smear test is extremely important, and statistics show that women are being failed here when it matters most. Waits for follow-up colposcopies in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde continue to soar. During cervical cancer awareness week, I raised the case of my constituent who had a smear test in February 2022 that showed abnormal cells. She had to wait a year for the follow-up colposcopy. I received a letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care wishing her well for an appointment at the end of January this year—which was cancelled. We really need to do better for women. My constituent told me:

“It’s been really tough on my mental health. I was left questioning if the delay would have a detrimental outcome for me.”

Freedom of information requests have revealed that the longest wait for a colposcopy across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde is currently 48 weeks. In comparison, in neighbouring Lanarkshire, no one has had to wait more than 10 weeks for a colposcopy over the past six months. In NHS Lothian, the second-biggest health board in Scotland, the average wait was just short of nine weeks. There is a postcode lottery in women’s experience across Scotland.

The figures for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde are shocking, and they are far worse than those in the rest of the country. Health inequalities are worsening in this area, and that should be addressed as a matter of urgency.

Cervical cancer is a treatable disease, and I welcome the improvement in HPV vaccination, but we need to do more. The Scottish Government must tackle screening inequalities and screening uptake, it must fund further research and it must address wait times for colposcopies, particularly in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Only then can we hope to beat cervical cancer once and for all.