JSNA – People – Cancer Screening

Last Updated: May 2024

Cancer screening involves testing apparently healthy people for signs of the disease. NHS cancer screening programmes can help to diagnose cancer or risk of cancer earlier and improve the likelihood of successful treatment. There are three national cancer screening programmes in England: Bowel, Breast, and Cervical.

The cancer screening dashboard includes data for all three screening programmes and compares the screening coverage in Barnet to coverage seen across the North Central London Integrated Care Board (NCL) and England.

Headline Figures

• For all types of cancer screening, coverage is highest in PCN2.
• Coverage of bowel cancer screening has been continually increasing since 2013/14 and currently has a coverage of 64.1% across Barnet.
• Cervical cancer screening coverage is higher in those aged 50-64 years than in those aged 25-49 years.
• 58.3% of cancers in Barnet are diagnosed in stage 1 or 2 – this is significantly higher than the England average.

Narrative

Looking at screening data at the PCN level allows us to compare how coverage rates vary within Barnet. We can see that within PCNs, coverage significantly varies at the GP level. For all three screening types, PCN 2 has the highest current coverage across Barnet.

• Bowel: Coverage of bowel cancer screening in all PCNs has risen since 2013/14. In 2022/23, PCN 2 has the highest coverage at 69% and PCN1D has the lowest at 58%. Apart from PCN 1D, all PCNs are above the NCL average. However as it stands, all PCNs are below England average.

• Breast: Breast cancer screening coverage in 2022/23 was below the England average but above or equal to the NCL average in all PCNs. Coverage is highest in PCN 2 (65%) and lowest in PCN 1D (53%).

• Cervical: In 2022/23, coverage was highest in PCN 2 (64%) whilst coverage was lowest in PCN 1D (55%) for those aged 25-49 years. PCN 2 and PCN 3 coverage for this age group was higher or equal to the England national average and all PCNs apart from PCN 1D are equal to or higher than the NCL average. In those aged 50-64 years, coverage was lowest in PCN 1W at 68% and highest in PCN 2 at 74%.

In 2018, 58.3% of all cancers were diagnosed in stage 1 or stage 2 in Barnet. This is statistically similar to the London average (55.9%) and significantly higher than the England average (54.4%).

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