SalfordOnline
Your local community website
   Cervical Cancer Screening Award for NHS Salford
NHS Salford is the winner of the first ever Cervical Screening Awards, run by leading charity Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust. NHS Salford has been recognised for its creative and innovative campaign to improve uptake of cervical screening. NHS Salford conducted a consultation process in which women, from various areas in Salford, were asked to talk about their experiences of cervical screening. This work directly influenced NHS Salford’s approach to cervical screening and ensured that women can easily access screening services from a number of locations at convenient times. This has involved setting up Saturday screening clinics, evening clinics and clinics for women with disabilities. Further initiatives include delivering clinics from children’s centres with childcare facilities available, translation of invitation letters into Polish and Czech and conducting a review process to ensure GP practices have the correct information about patients. Most importantly women have been contacted directly, by telephone, and invited to screening sessions. This has proved to be one of the best methods of encouraging uptake and understanding the reasons women were not coming in for screening. Nilli Williamson, NHS Salford Primary Care Commissioning Manager, who led the campaign said; “In Salford we talked directly to women who had missed their test in order to find out the reasons why and offer more information and support. We made it easier for women to get screened by setting up more clinics at different times and different locations across Salford, which resulted in an increase in the numbers of women being screened.” It is estimated that three women die every day from cervical cancer, but latest figures show a downturn in the numbers of women getting screened. Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust set up the awards in order to boost awareness and uptake of screening as well as celebrate the work being done to improve cervical screening. Robert Music, Director at Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust, added; “Nationally only one in three women under the age of 35 are being screened for cervical cancer. The work NHS Salford was been doing has made a real difference to women in the area. Jo’s Trust wanted to highlight this good work and reward NHS Salford for its efforts.” NHS Salford encourages all eligible women aged between 25 and 64 to get screened. Women should contact their practice nurse or GP if they have any worries, anxieties or require further support. Photograph of Robert Music, Director at Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust presenting the award to Nilli Williamson, NHS Salford Primary Care Commissioning Manager. Source: Salford NHS. Due to problems with spam only SalfordOnline members can now leave comments. Becoming a member of SalfordOnline only takes a minute, just hit the red Join Us button at the top right hand side of the page to create your Personal account. Got a news story? Need help with publicity for an event in Salford? Send it to newsdesk@salfordonline.com or call the SalfordOnline newsdesk on 0161 789 5377. |
|
