Doctors: Government is wrong over cervical screening

Sam Lister, Health Editor The Government is wrong to refuse cervical cancer screening to those under 25, the British Medical Association said today. Doctors voted three to one that women should be screened for cervical cancer from the age of 20 a week after the Department of Health refused to lower the starting age. Charities have been calling for younger women to be screened in light of the death of 27-year-old Jade Goody in March. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, women attend screening from the age of 20 and used to in England up until 2003. Proposing the motion at the BMA’s annual conference in Liverpool, Dr Mary McCarthy, a GP from Staffordshire, said the number of women attending smear tests has dropped 10 per cent in the last 10 years. “The poorest attenders - at 72 per cent - are those in the younger age... [read full story]                    

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