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Dept of Health

Answer

Mrs. Calton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what assessment he has made of the benefits of liquid cytology testing for cervical cancer since the roll-out of the technique started; [198917] (2) how many women in each strategic health authority have been enrolled on human papilloma virus testing pilots; how many have taken up liquid cytology testing for cervical cancer; and if he will make a statement; [198828] (3) what progress has been made with the introduction of human papilloma virus testing and liquid cytology testing; and what plans he has for future roll-out. [198862] Miss Melanie Johnson :[holding answers 17 November 2004]: Following the evaluation of a Government- funded pilot study of liquid based cytology (LBC), the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) concluded in October 2003 that this new technology should be rolled out across the national health service cervical screening programme. It will take five years to implement LBC across England, as all staff who read the tests or take the tests will have to be retrained. The Department is providing £7.2 million over the next two years to kick-start this process. We are starting by converting the 10 regional cytology training schools, which will then be able to train the rest of the programme. As at November 2004, nine out of the 10 training schools had been trained or had a specific date to begin their retraining. The tenth is awaiting a local decision on which system they will use. As LBC is rolled out, it will be subject to the same rigorous quality assurance procedures as the current programme, along with an annual statistical return. The NICE decision followed successful piloting of LBC for a 12 month period between 2001 and 2002 at three sites: North Bristol, Newcastle, and Norfolk and Norwich. The pilot sites have continued to use LBC, and latest figures for 2002-03 are shown in the table. _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Pilot site Eligible population Number of women screened using Coverage for 2002-03 1 LBC in 2002-03 (percentage) North Bristol Avon, Gloucestershire and 54,100 10,300 75.8 Wiltshire Strategic Health Authority (SHA) Newcastle Northumberland, Tyne and Wear SHA 62,800 16,800 81.6 Norfolk and Norwich Norfolk, Suffolk and 31,500 7,100 78.7 Cambridgeshire SHA _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 1 Coverage for 2002-03 is defined as the percentage of eligible women in a population who have a screening test recorded in the last five years. In England, women aged 20 to 64 are invited for cervical screening every three to five years. Source: Statistical bulletin--cervical screening programme, England: 2002-03. As part of the LBC pilot, we also piloted the use of HPV testing as triage for women with mild or borderline test results. According to the official evaluation of the pilot, a total of 3,681 women received HPV tests across the three pilot sites. The advisory committee on cervical screening is now considering how best to take forward HPV testing in England, following consideration of the draft final report of the evaluation of the pilot.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

426 c1951-2W;426 c1956-7W; 198917;198828;198862

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Cervical cancer Finance Health authorities Pilot schemes Screening Take-up Viral diseases Human papillomavirus

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk