Chamber and committees

A Business Case on the introduction of HPV primary screening has been submitted to the Scottish Screening Committee. This Business Case is being carefully considered by the Committee who will advise Scottish Ministers on the future use of HPV testing in the programme.

On 8 February 2017 we will launch a new, hard-hitting awareness raising campaign on cervical screening targeted at 25-35 year old women living in Scotland from lower socio economic groups as we know they are less likely to attend.

Officials work closely with Health Boards to develop initiatives to improve uptake for women from disadvantaged backgrounds within the Scottish Cervical Screening Programme. Recent local initiatives include regular drop in screening sessions for women from disadvantaged backgrounds and clinics engaging with homeless women and those seeking help for drug and alcohol use.

We recently commissioned research with women from disadvantaged backgrounds into the reasons for non-uptake of the screening invitation. The results of this work will inform our engagement and communications strategy to support the programme and encourage participation in cervical screening particularly amongst those less likely to attend when invited.

Furthermore, we are investing £5m of funding from the Cancer Strategy in our screening programmes to reduce inequalities in access to screening in Scotland.

Increasing coverage in the Scottish Cervical Screening Programme is a key objective for the Scottish Government and work continues on helping address the fall in cervical screening uptake rates.

It is disappointing that uptake is dropping however on the 8th of February 2017 we will launch a new hard-hitting campaign on cervical screening to raise awareness of the benefits of having a smear test and to encourage women to attend when invited.

We are also responding with £5m of funding from the Cancer Strategy being invested in our screening programmes including cervical screening to reduce inequalities and improve uptake, particularly amongst those less likely to participate in screening.

Officials are currently working to establish a network, involving clinical and academic experts from across Scotland as well as organisations such as Cancer Research UK and Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust to identify new activities, learning from local practice and innovation, to help improve screening coverage.

Furthermore, Scottish Government officials meet cervical screening coordinators from all NHS Boards on a quarterly basis to discuss a range of issues relating to the national screening programme, including promoting screening services and initiatives to improve uptake. NHS Boards have responsibility for publicising screening within their local area and for working closely with their communities to increase screening uptake.

We are investing £5m of funding from the Cancer Strategy 'Beating Cancer: Ambition and Action' to reduce inequalities in access to screening in Scotland. Funding will be allocated over the next 5 years to support new activities which identify, address and reduce inequalities of access to screening services in Scotland.

Officials are currently working to establish a NHS Scotland network, including stakeholders and experts from across NHS Scotland, which will develop and share new ways of working.

Pilot activities with the ability to improve access to screening will be considered by Scottish Government and if approved will be subject to evaluation. If successful they will be carefully considered for wider roll out.

Cervical Screening is offered to women aged between 25 and 64 and we encourage all eligible women to take up their invitation. Cervical screening can reduce cases of cervical cancer and death. It saves around 5,000 lives in the UK every year and prevents eight out of 10 cervical cancers from developing.

We also now know that almost all cervical cancer is caused by HPV. Uptake rates for the HPV vaccination programme in Scotland remain high and exceed 80%. We will continue our efforts to ensure that Scottish girls benefit from this vaccine, which will save lives.

Whilst the HPV vaccine offers protection against the most common causes of cervical cancer it does not protect against all other types of HPV that cause cancer. Therefore, the combination of the vaccination and attending cervical screening from 25 years of age will offer the best possible protection against cervical cancer

Scottish Government officials work closely with Cervical Screening Coordinators from all NHS Boards to develop initiatives to improve uptake for all women and to promote cervical screening services by communicating effectively with a range of audiences. Recent local initiatives to increase cervical screening coverage include running cervical screening awareness workshops to tackle the cultural differences that can cause barriers to attending for cervical screening and dedicated staff working with women with learning difficulties to facilitate cervical screening and assist during appointments.

We recently commissioned NHS Health Scotland to review the cervical screening public information. The results of this work included a new patient information leaflet "A smear test could save your life" which was launched last summer. This recently received one of the 2016 Plain English Awards and will help ensure we communicate the benefits of cervical screening effectively.

All communication materials are available in number of languages and other translations can be requested, ensuring that women from black and ethnic minority groups have equitable access to communication materials in order to make an informed decision on participating in the programme cervical screening.

Two easy-to-read leaflets in NHS Health Scotland’s ‘Keep Yourself Healthy’ series are available for cervical screening and support people with learning difficulties to make an informed choice. NHS Boards are encouraged to make use of the materials available to them when discussing cervical screening with women who have learning difficulties.

Furthermore, we are investing £5m of funding from the Cancer Strategy in our screening programmes to reduce inequalities in access to screening in Scotland. Officials are currently working to establish a network, involving clinical and academic experts from across Scotland as well as organisations such as Cancer Research UK and Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust to identify new activities, learning from local practice and innovation to improve uptake of screening programmes, particularly amongst those less likely to participate in screening.

Information on this is not held centrally. There are no specific rules in place for self-invested personal pension holders in Land and Buildings Transaction Tax.

Patients accessing these units will have been assessed by a senior clinician, either GP or hospital doctor, before being referred to the unit.

These units carry out a wide range of clinical tests and observations, with clinical decisions being taken throughout the pathway of care. For example, for some patients it will be clear from the start that they will require admission to a downstream inpatient bed, while for others it will be clear that they will require admitted to the unit for a short time for ambulatory assessment care before returning home, for other patients’ clinical decisions on admission to an downstream inpatient bed would follow observation and tests.

Under the current statistical definitions patients in these units can be categorised as inpatients, outpatients and ward attenders. Clinicians and data analysts are considering the improvements that need to be made to existing definitions and their application. They will report to the Unscheduled Care Advisory board and Sir Harry Burns’ national review of targets and indicators if required.

We would expect all ambulance staff to carry out stock checks of their vehicles at the start of every shift as part of the Scottish Ambulance Service's standard procedure to check the maintenance of vehicles before responding to patients.