VALENCIA (EFE). The Ministry of Universal Health and Public Health starts from Monday 28 November the screening program for the detection of cervical cancer through a pilot plan which will be implemented in five health departments of the Valencian Community.
This is the first step Before rolling out this program to the entire target population, which are women from the Valencian Community aged between 25 and 65 years. The objective is to measure and evaluate the circuits, the procedures established, as well as the degree of acceptance and response to the participation of the women invited.
The Minister of Health, Miguel Minguezhe recalled the importance of this type of programme, as “screening is one of the main preventive tools for the very early diagnosis of possible cancers, which means a better response from patients to treatment and a significant reduction in mortality.
For this reason, the head of Health has encouraged “all women in the Valencian Community and, at this time, those who will be summoned next week, to participate in cervical cancer screening”.
In this sense, As of Monday, the health ministry will summon nearly 4,300 women which depend on the Pintor Sorolla health centers of the Castelló health department, CS Moncada of the Arnau-Llíria department, CS Utiel of the Requena department, CS Torrent II of the Valencia-General Hospital department and CS Babel of the Alicante-General Hospital department.
In this pilot study, women from 7 cohorts aged 35 to 65 from these five health departments will be cited.
Because of this, a mass mailing was made to invite participation in the study, and the periodic sending of SMS and SMS reminders has been integrated to remind them of the importance of participation. On the other hand, the program makes use of the collaboration of the pharmacies of the surrounding areas to provide support in raising awareness.
Furthermore, the project is funded by European funds and the actions related to the invitation to the screening program are part of Investment 2 of Component 18 of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan – Funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.
Likewise, This measure is part of the Women’s Care Plan, a plan that the minister announced in the 2023 budget and which will have 12.5 million euros. The objective is the implementation of new measures aimed at prevention and improvement of health care for women at all stages of life.
Indeed, in addition to cervical cancer screening, the age for breast cancer screening will also be raised to 74 years. Furthermore, among other measures, the construction of the first birthing center in the Valencian Community will begin next year, which will be located in the La Plana hospital. And, on the other hand, it is planned to extend the Non Invasive Prenatal Test to all pregnant women, around 37,000 a year.
As for the procedure, Two types of tests will be carried out depending on the age of the women. Those between the ages of 25 and 34 will be summoned to the health center for a Pap smear every 3 years. And women between the ages of 35 and 65 will be sent home a device for taking vaginal samples. Once the sample has been collected, they must deposit it, together with the letter of invitation, in the ballot box installed in their authorized health centre. They will receive the result in a period of 7 to 10 days.
