Cervical, breast and bowel screening (FOI)

Request

A

Please could you give numbers for how many people attended routine cervical screening appointments during each quarter of 2018, each quarter of 2019 and the three quarters (so far) of 2020?

B

During 2018, 2019 and the first nine months of 2020, how many of those screened, broken down by year, were reported as having abnormal changes in the cells of the cervix?

C

Please could you provide the equivalent numbers as above for bowel screening (broken down by quarters), and the numbers who required follow-up appointments or action? Or if simpler, the percentage of patients each year given an 'all clear' result.

D

Please could you provide the equivalent numbers for breast screening (broken down by quarters), and the numbers who required follow-up appointments or action? Or if simpler, the percentage of patients each year given an 'all clear' result.

Response

A

Table 1 shows the number of cervical cytology samples received by Health and Community Services (HCS) Pathology laboratory. Appointments are attended at GP practices, as well as the Well Woman Clinic run by HCS. GP data is not covered by Freedom of Information, therefore the only available figures to this question is the number of samples received in the laboratory.

Table 1: Number of Cervical Cytology samples received

Please note that these figures include a relatively small number of samples that may have come from the same patient at different points in their screening recall cycle.

Some samples are taken whilst patients are under the care of the gynaecology team, and these are therefore not technically within the remit of the cervical screening programme. As these are not easily able to be identified, they are included in the figures.

B

Table 2 shows the number of cervical cytology samples reported as showing abnormal changes in the cells of the cervix.

Table 2: Number of Cervical Cytology samples showing abnormal changes in the cells of the cervix

C 

When a person attends bowel screening, the outcome might be all clear, or polyps may be found but may be removed and sent for histology. People are recalled for a follow-up procedure if there are multiple or complex polyps or if the histology results show that further procedure is required.

Table 3 shows the number of people who attended bowel screening appointments by year and quarter. Table 4 shows the number of people who have undergone a follow-up procedure. The Department has determined that where numbers are less than five, to provide the specific number of appointments would likely breach the privacy of the individuals. Article 25 (Personal Information) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has therefore been applied.

Table 3: Number of People attending Bowel Screening

Please note that the service was suspended due to COVID restrictions, hence the low numbers in Q2 and Q3 2020.

Table 4: Number of people undergoing follow-up procedures

D

Table 5 shows the number of people who attended breast screening appointments by year and quarter. Table 6 shows the number of people who have undergone a follow-up procedure.

Table 5: Number of People attending Breast Screening

Table 6: Number of People who required follow-up procedures

Articles Applied

Article 25 Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.

(3) In determining for the purposes of this Article whether the lawfulness principle in Article 8(1)(a) of the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018 would be contravened by the disclosure of information, paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 2 to that Law (legitimate interests) is to be read as if sub-paragraph (b) (which disapplies the provision where the controller is a public authority) were omitted.