A HAMPSHIRE surgery leads the way on cervical screenings.

St Mary’s Surgery, in Southampton, has won a national award for their work to increase the number of women attending potentially life-saving cervical screening.

The In the Pink! Campaign has been awarded the top prize by charity Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust.

Cervical screening can prevent up to 75 per cent of cervical cancers from developing however one in four women do not attend the appointment.

As part of their four week campaign, the surgery sent weekly reminders to women, individually called patients to explain the importance of the test and broadcast interviews in a variety of languages on a local community radio station, as many of the surgery’s patients do not speak English as a first language.

As well as increasing the availability of appointments both in hours and outside normal working hours.

Dr Ingela Carrington, GP Partner at St Mary’s Surgery, said: “St Marys Surgery is delighted to have won this award.

“During the campaign we saw a 7.9 per cent increase in uptake. This has now increased to over 11 per cent increase since the start of the campaign.

“Sixty per cent of our practice population live in the most deprived areas of the city. At the end of the campaign the greatest gains were achieved within the more deprived areas.”