Exclusive: With no appointment needed and a relaxed environment, bus clinic encourages more women to be checked<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 10am on one of the main pedestrian shopping streets in Warrington, and already there\u2019s a queue of women outside a small bus the size of a supermarket delivery van. While some look calm, others are visibly nervous. This is no mobile library, post office or coffee truck \u2013 but one providing far more intimate services: cervical screening.<\/p>\n
The bus feels surprisingly spacious. There\u2019s a consultation area with room for the nurses, patients and anyone accompanying them to talk. Behind it, a separate room holds a bed, room to get changed and storage for all the clinical equipment. Purple lighting, smart decor and spa music add to the minimalist ambience.<\/p>\n
Catherine, 26, is the first in the queue. She has never had cervical screening before. She says the fact that it is a bus, with people she doesn\u2019t know, persuaded her to go ahead with it. \u201cI didn\u2019t go for screening before because there\u2019s only one nurse at my doctor\u2019s and she\u2019s my asthma nurse,\u201d Catherine says. \u201cSo it felt too familiar.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women, according to the World Health Organization. Its cervical cancer strategy states that by 2030 all countries should screen 70% of girls and vaccinate 90% of girls by the age of 15.<\/p>\n
But NHS figures show there are just over 4 million women in England who are not up to date with their cervical screening, and that number is rising. According to OECD data, in the decade since 2014, screening rates in England have fallen eight percentage points to 69%, the fourth steepest drop behind Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Turkey.<\/p>\n
According to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, women from ethnic minority backgrounds, disabled women, LGBTQ+ people with a cervix, and those in deprived areas are less likely to be up to date with screening.<\/p>\n
In 2024, in a move to improve take up, Living Well buses started running walk-in cervical screening clinics in Cheshire and Merseyside. Funded by NHS England North West, the service was so popular that this summer it expanded into neighbouring regions. Now, two buses run 10 cervical screening sessions a week across Lancashire and South Cumbria, as well as Cheshire and Merseyside. From October, the service will start going to locations in Greater Manchester.<\/p>\n
Jill West, one of the nurses running the clinic, says mobile screening is game-changing. \u201cThe bus is fantastic. Women can sometimes forget about their own health \u2013 they\u2019ve got children to think about, work to think about, they can\u2019t get a convenient GP appointment, or fit it in with their menstrual cycle. So the bus is perfect because it\u2019s advertised and women can come along and get screened without having to make an appointment.\u201d<\/p>\n
This morning session certainly seems to be working. Peggy, 57, works in the NHS but says she had to sneak out of her shift to come to the bus and is very overdue for screening. \u201cI\u2019ve had smears before but I can\u2019t remember when the last one was,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m now on HRT and I had a little blood the other week, so when this came up, I thought that\u2019s the signal that I need to go and get checked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Imogen, 35, who works as a pharmacy technician, says the only appointment at her GP surgery would have been for 7am. \u201cI\u2019ve got two children, I can\u2019t get there that early,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s just hard because you think it\u2019s so important and it\u2019s so hard to get an appointment [at the GPs], but this is just brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite that, Imogen is incredibly anxious and at one point almost in tears. \u201cI don\u2019t know why I\u2019m so nervous,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s just uncomfortable, isn\u2019t it? But I know it needs to be done.\u201d Less than 10 minutes later she steps out of the bus. \u201cI feel so relieved,\u201d she tells me. \u201cIt was fine, it\u2019s done now. The nurses were so lovely and put me at ease.\u201d<\/p>\n
By 4pm, 18 women have been screened \u2013 of whom five had never had a screening before and eight who were overdue. In all, the buses have screened more than 2,700 women across the north-west.<\/p>\n
Dr Sue Mann, NHS England\u2019s national clinical director for women\u2019s health, says: \u201cScreening saves lives \u2013 and thousands more women have now had cervical screening they likely wouldn\u2019t have otherwise had thanks to these excellent roaming clinics-on-wheels.\u201d<\/p>\n
For some, even a friendly mobile bus would not be enough. Later this year, NHS England will start rolling out self-sampling, inviting women who are overdue a screening to order home kits.<\/p>\n