NHS screening buses reach thousands as North West expands walk-in cervical checks

Mobile cervical screening clinics are being expanded across North West England as the NHS looks for new ways to reach people who are overdue or face barriers to attending traditional appointments.

The Living Well buses began offering walk-in cervical screening in Cheshire and Merseyside in 2024 and have since screened more than 2,700 women across the North West. Following the initial programme, the service has expanded into Lancashire and South Cumbria, with Greater Manchester due to follow from October.

Two buses are now running 10 cervical screening sessions each week across Lancashire and South Cumbria, Cheshire and Merseyside.

The mobile clinics are positioned in community locations and allow eligible people to attend without making an appointment. Inside, the buses provide private clinical facilities where screening can be carried out by NHS staff.

The approach is intended to remove some of the practical and personal barriers that can prevent people attending cervical screening, including difficulties finding suitable GP appointments, work and childcare commitments, travel and anxiety around the procedure.

At one recent session in Warrington, 18 women were screened in a single day. Five were attending cervical screening for the first time and eight were overdue.

The expansion comes as cervical screening participation remains a concern nationally. More than four million women in England are currently not up to date with their cervical screening, while screening rates have fallen over the past decade.

Some groups are less likely to be up to date with screening, including women from ethnic minority backgrounds, disabled women, LGBTQ+ people with a cervix and people living in more deprived communities.

The NHS is also preparing to introduce HPV self-sampling later this year, which will allow some people who are overdue for cervical screening to order kits that can be used at home.

Dr Sue Mann, NHS England’s national clinical director for women’s health, said screening saves lives and that thousands more women had now been screened through the mobile clinics who may otherwise not have attended.

The mobile programme forms part of wider efforts to make cervical screening more accessible by taking services directly into communities rather than relying solely on people attending traditional healthcare settings.

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