National Cervical Screening Campaign March 2019

11th March 2019

Public Health England (PHE) will be launching a new national Cervical Screening Campaign at the beginning of March 2019 to help increase participation in the programme. Briefing packs will be sent directly to GP practices and pharmacies on or around the 25^th February. Nationally coverage is at a 20 year low, and whilst within Greater Manchester we are carrying out more smear tests than ever before, with the growth in the population and the significant variation in coverage across Local Authority/CCG areas and between GP practices, we know we still have work to do to ensure as many women as possible can access cervical screening.

In addition to the national PHE campaign, Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership (GMHSCP) will be amplifying (boosting) the national campaign. The amplification will be supported by very brief advice delivered in pharmacies across GM as part of the healthy living pharmacy framework from 1^st – 31^st March 2019.

Further information in relation to the PHE national campaign can be accessed via the below link.

https://campaignresources.phe.gov.uk/resources/campaigns/85-cervical-screening-campaign

The Screening and Immunisation Team will continue to communicate with the GM primary care team, local CCG communication teams, local authorities, cancer champions and GM cancer leads in order to raise awareness of the national campaign and local amplification including brief advice that pharmacies will be delivering to ensure all primary care outlets including voluntary sectors are aware of and can support any existing local activity aimed at increasing cervical screening uptake.