We offer a range cancer screening services here at Paddington Green Health Centre.
Bowel Cancer
Your next poo could save your life
We are supporting a London-wide campaign to encourage more patients to do their free NHS bowel cancer screening home test, which checks if you could have bowel cancer.
People who are the right age are sent a free NHS FIT (Faecal Immunochemical Test) kit every two years. You use it to collect a small sample of poo and post it back to an NHS lab.
The campaign by NHS London, “Your next poo could save your life”, urges more people to use their kit – a message we wholeheartedly endorse. Screening can help prevent bowel cancer and find it at an early stage when it’s easier to treat. People who complete their screening are 25% less likely to die of bowel cancer.
The kits are for people with no symptoms and most people get the all-clear. If you are aged 56, 58 (on or after 16 May 2022) or 60 to 74 and we have your correct address, you will be sent a kit every 2 years. Please use it. By April 2025, bowel cancer screening kits will be for everyone aged 50 to 74 in England.
To find out more and hear from other Londoners about their experience of bowel cancer screening, visit www.healthylondon.org/bcs.
If you have symptoms of bowel cancer which last for three weeks or more, please contact the practice and ask for an appointment.
Breast Screening
The West of London Breast Screening Service is part of the NHS Breast Screening Programme. They provide services to women registered with GPs in Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster.
Useful links:
Cervical Screening
Cervical screening, or smear test, is a method of detecting abnormal (pre-cancerous) cells in the cervix in order to prevent cervical cancer.
Cervical screening is not a test for cancer; it is a test to check the health of the cells of the cervix. Most women’s test results show that everything is normal, but for 1 in 20 women the test will show some abnormal changes in the cells of the cervix.
Our nurses are qualified to carry out cervical screening and tests in the form of cervical smears. In order to have a cervical smear the patient must have received a letter requesting that they have a cervical smear and the appointment must please be made for when the patient is not menstruating.
These appointments typically take around 15 minutes. For any further information or to book an appointment, please call the surgery.
Useful links
How do I get a screening kit?
If you are aged 60-69 years, you will be sent your screening invitation automatically through the post. All you need to do is make sure that your GP has your correct address.
‘People aged 70 years and over or under the age of 60, who wish to be screened, should request a kit. Simply telephone the free helpline on 0800 707 60 60.’
Useful Links
https://www.london-breastscreening.org.uk/contact-us – Main West London breast screening website
What happens during a breast screening appointment
Breast Screening for those with Learning Disabilities
Breast screening: helping women decide – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) – in different languages
