{"id":228,"date":"2018-06-12T14:28:10","date_gmt":"2018-06-12T14:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/cancerprevention\/?p=228"},"modified":"2018-06-12T14:28:10","modified_gmt":"2018-06-12T14:28:10","slug":"computer-says-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cancerprevention.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php\/2018\/06\/12\/computer-says-no\/","title":{"rendered":"Computer says \u201cno\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Robert M<\/em>usic, Chief Executive, Jo\u2019s Cervical Cancer Trust<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Of the five million women invited every year for cervical screening in the UK, over one in four don\u2019t attend. There are many psychological, literacy and cultural barriers affecting awareness and intention to attend yet more and more women are telling us that they are struggling to get a cervical screening appointment. To me, this highlights that access could be the biggest issue to attendance.<\/p>\n

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New research that we have carried out at Jo\u2019s Cervical Cancer Trust found that almost one in 10 women were only offered times they couldn\u2019t make the last time they tried to book an appointment and more worryingly, 7% were told no appointments were available when they last tried to book.<\/p>\n

Opportunities for women to access the programme are unequal depending on where they live and their personal situation with some groups of women, including those with a physical disability or who have experienced sexual violence, further disadvantaged by the current setup and delivery. While the pressures facing primary care cannot be denied, cervical screening is predominantly delivered through GP practices, so it should not be the case that women are unable to get an appointment.<\/p>\n

Today we are calling for urgent action and have released a report \u2018Computer says \u201cno\u201d<\/a>\u2019 looking at the problems affecting access across the country.<\/p>\n

This includes<\/p>\n