We offer a range of clinics and services in our practice to help with cancer screening and cancer prevention.
Bowel cancer screening
If you are registered with the practice and between the age of 60 and 74 years (and soon to be available to those 50 to 59 years) then you will be sent a bowel screening kit every 2 years.
Call the free NHS bowel cancer screening helpline on 0800 707 60 60 if:
- you have not had your result after 2 weeks from when you sent off your kit
- you want to know more about screening (you do not need to call the helpline when you become eligible for screening – you’ll be contacted)
- you do not want to be invited for NHS bowel cancer screening
Breast Screening
If you are registered with the practice, are female and between the age of 50 and 71 years then you will be invited every 3 years for breast screening. You’ll get a letter in the post from the National Brest Screening Programme inviting you to make an appointment; your invitation will depend on when the national programme provide the service for our practice, not when your Birthday is.
Breast screening aims to find breast cancer at an early stage, often before there are any symptoms. To do this, an x-ray is taken of each breast (mammogram). Early detection may often mean simpler and more successful treatment.
As a practice we urge every female patient to have breast screening as the programme is very successful and currently saves around 1,400 lives per year. The national programme informs us of who has and who has not attended for their screening; we routinely contact all patients who have not attended for screening and encourage uptake.
If you have not had screening in the past 3 years and would like to be screened then please contact the breast screening unit on 0151 282 6920.
Cervical Screening
Cervical screening, or smear test, is a method of detecting abnormal (pre-cancerous) cells in the cervix in order to prevent cervical cancer. The cervix is the entrance to the womb from the vagina. Cervical screening is recommended every three years for women aged 25 to 49 and every five years for women aged 50 to 64 or more frequently if smear results indicates abnormal changes.
Cervical screening is not a test for cancer; it is a test to check the health of the cells of the cervix. Most women’s test results show that everything is normal, but for 1 in 20 women the test will show some abnormal changes in the cells of the cervix.
Most of these changes will not lead to cervical cancer and the cells may go back to normal on their own. However, in some cases, the abnormal cells need to be treated to prevent them becoming cancerous.
Our nurses are qualified to carry out cervical screening and tests in the form of cervical smears. In order to have a cervical smear the patient must have received a letter requesting that they have a cervical smear and the appointment must please be made for when the patient is not menstruating.
These appointments typically take around 20 minutes. For any further information or to book an appointment, please call the practice.