Exclusive:Cervical smears: Number of women receiving vital health test plummets in Scotland

Numerous health boards have seen the number of women receiving a smear test almost halve in recent years.

The number of women getting cervical smear tests has plummeted over the past three years, figures have revealed, as the Scottish Government was urged to “do better”.

Last year at least 121,981 tests were carried out across Scotland. But this number has fallen sharply from the 189,283 tests conducted in 2023 and the 223,276 tests in 2022.

A number of health boards saw their numbers almost halve during this time, including NHS Grampian, NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Lothian and NHS Tayside.

All women between the ages of 25 and 64 are offered a cervical smear test every three to five years to try and prevent cancer.

The speculum and soft brush they use for the smear test

But according to data obtained by the Scottish Conservatives through a Freedom of Information request, the number of women receiving a smear test in NHS Grampian almost halved from 35,297 in 2022 to just 18,194 last year.

A similar picture was seen in NHS Lanarkshire where numbers dropped from 42,134 in 2022 to 22,272 last year.

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At NHS Lothian, a drop of 60,136 to 31,750 over the corresponding period was recorded, and in NHS Tayside there was a fall from 25,603 to 13,637.

Falling numbers were also recorded at other health boards, including at NHS Ayrshire and Arran where tests dropped from 21,190 to 13,392 and at NHS Borders where a decrease from 6,290 to 3,579 was seen.

At NHS Forth Valley, the numbers dipped from 18,838 to 9,975 and at NHS Highland tests tumbled from 13,887 to 9,182.

On top of this the number of women receiving further treatment or a follow-up appointment after their smear test dropped slightly from 8,926 in 2023 to 8,589 last year - despite there being an increase of 1,734 between 2022 and 2023.

Annie Wells, the Scottish Conservatives’ health spokeswoman, hit out at the Scottish Government for not publishing this data themselves.

Annie Wells said the Scottish Tories would repeal the Hate Crime Bill.

She told The Scotsman: “These figures show that there has been a decline in women attending for vital screening right across the country. The fact the Scottish Government has not managed to publish these statistics is a failing that compounds this worrying situation.

“Health boards clearly hold the data and it’s unacceptable that this hasn’t been formally published, which would allow experts, politicians and the media to properly scrutinise it.

“We know that screening saves lives, so any reduction in attendance is also a risk that someone is not getting the care and treatment they need. For the sake of women all over Scotland, the government must do better.”

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said: “Screening saves lives and people are entitled to regular testing.

“Women are still invited to attend cervical screening appointments at the intervals they require, based on their screening history.

“However, since new HPV tests were introduced by this government, many people have required less frequent screening.

“The backlog of tests following the pause caused by the pandemic showed an increase in numbers initially, followed by a recent levelling off as this cleared.

“We remain committed to increasing uptake by women and are exploring the most effective ways of doing this through our ongoing work to eliminate cervical cancer.”

Data was not obtained from the three island health boards or NHS Fife. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Dumfries and Galloway have not yet published their data for 2024.