Kate Hollern MP: 'Take up the offer of cervical cancer screening'

I’ve said quite a lot about levelling up in this bi-weekly column. In my most recent column, I mentioned how – despite the Government’s woeful attempt to live up to call and meet the ambition of people and places – there is a real demand to speak seriously to the spatial disparities across the country.

At the heart of these disparities, and sometimes most pernicious, are health disparities between our communities.

In the last year, I’ve engaged with local leaders, health professionals and ministers about the disconcertingly poor coverage of the primary care system for families in Blackburn. More recently I raised this issue again in the chamber, stressing that Blackbrun’s 33 GPs per 100,000 patients (and other similar numbers in parts of the North West) are another challenge the Government has failed to meet.

But also, as communities, there is so much more work for us to do.

In the past week, I’ve had the opportunity to speak to a number of charities working hard to stamp cancer out of our communities. I had a chance to hear about the work that they do to support those battling with and turn the tide against these cancers by raising awareness for early diagnosis.

This week was Cervical Screening Awareness Week and it was great supporting Jo’s cervical cancer trust, who are doing amazing work to raise awareness about cervical cancer and the work that can be done to save lives. Only 1 in 3 currently attend the critically important cervical screenings that can be so important in getting diagnoses early and saving lives.

Similarly, it was difficult to hear that only 29.6% of people in Blackburn with suspected breast cancer were seen by a specialist within two weeks at the start of the year. This is significantly lower than the national average of 54.0%. Breast screening uptake was also short of the national average, with Blackburn sitting at 51.5% and the England uptake at 61.8%.

Like cervical cancer, a fast breast cancer diagnosis can do so much to relieve patients from the immense stress and anxiety of waiting for an answer. But more importantly, if breast cancer is found, and diagnosed early, it gives people the opportunity to start treatment as quickly as possible and stand a better chance of beating it.

There is serious work for the Government to raise the ambition for faster diagnosis. Currently, the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS) is set at 75%, but Breast Cancer Now says this target level moves us backwards and risks delivering slower diagnosis for breast cancer patients.

On another level, there is a challenge for us as a community to have what can be very scary and difficult conversations around screening and taking up the chance to get to these issues early. No matter our unnerving, they are our chance to start the fight early and win. Let’s go!