Cervical cancer: New screenings will save lives, says top doctor

Changes in cervical cancer screenings will help save lives, not put them at risk, according to a top gynaecologist.

Prof Alison Fiander said people should not be worried screenings have dropped from every three to every five years in Wales as tests are "more effective".

Public Health Wales (PHW) said the new rules were for people aged 25 to 49.

More than 1.2 million people backed calls for a rethink in a UK petition and politicians in Wales will debate it after 30,000 signed a Senedd petition.

Women and people with a cervix - as it could also affect trans men too - who had not tested positive for human papillomavirus (HPV) will now wait two more years between tests.

Health chiefs in Wales said they changed the interval between screenings to the same time as those in Scotland because tests are now more accurate. Cervical screening gaps in England and Northern Ireland remain at three years.

But Wales' public health body did publicly apologise for causing "concern", and admitted health chiefs "hadn't done enough to explain the changes".

Prof Fiander, a clinical lead at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said PHW had "missed an opportunity" to help educate people but reassured the public the change was safe and not a cost-cutting exercise.

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Source: BBC News, 18 January 2022