The Department of Health has announced a major change to its National Cervical Screening Program (NCSP), aimed at increasing participation and supporting better outcomes for under-screened women.
According to the Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, from 1 July 2022, women will be able to collect their own samples for inclusion in the Program, offering them more control and choice and removing some cultural and personal barriers that may be discouraging some women from being screened.
“Offering self-collection to all screeners is a game changer for the NCSP,” Mr Hunt said.
“It provides greater choice in screening options and is expected to increase participation in cervical screening and support better outcomes in under-screened women,” he said.
“Expanded self-collection has the potential to remove some cultural and personal barriers that may discourage some women from screening, especially Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, culturally and linguistically diverse women, and gender and sexually diverse people.”
Mr Hunt said that currently, self-collection was only available to women who were 30 years of age or over and had never participated in the NCSP or were overdue for cervical screening by two years or longer.
“From 1 July, Australia will be one of the first countries in the world to offer the ‘game-changing’ self-collect option through our National Cervical Screening Program,” he said.
“Self-collection allows women to use a simple swab, similar to a COVID swab, to take a screening sample themselves instead of having a traditional cervical screening test completed by a clinician.”
The Minister said the Department planned to make the self-collect available through health care providers, including GPs, “ensuring these experts continue to play a critical role in supporting patients with cervical screening”.
Mr Hunt said self-collected samples were as safe, effective and as accurate as clinician-collected tests.
