How one mother's story made cancer screening more accessible

Do you think one story can change how NHS services work? After her daughter could not get a cervical cancer screening because of lack of hoists in local clinics, one determined mother joined forces with us. 

Find out how her experience made a difference for disabled people in her area.  

Lorna's story

Lorna's daughter, who is 14 years old, has severe to profound learning disabilities and uses a wheelchair to travel outside of her home. Caring for her daughter made Lorna aware of the obstacles facing disabled people's access to healthcare. 

Lorna splits her time between caring responsibilities and campaigning to improve disabled people's access to health and care services - an issue she is passionate about. 

She has successfully campaigned to improve care in her local area and nationally, including helping to run a support page for disabled people living in the area and working closely with health and care organisations like Healthwatch North Lincolnshire. 

What is Lorna fighting for?

Many disabled women are not being screened for cervical cancer. This is because many GP offices and medical centres don't have hoists or other equipment to help staff lift patients onto examination tables. 

Without this equipment, healthcare workers are unable to examine some patients properly. 

"As a non-disabled person, I can easily access these services," Lorna explained. "But other people can't so they're not getting the care they need. I even heard of one case of a woman, who already had a history of pre-cancerous cells, needing a general anaesthetic for her examination because there weren't any hoists available in her area." 

"My local Healthwatch weren't aware of the issues faced by disabled people, and I went to them with that," she explained. "They were fantastic, putting a huge amount of time and effort in to gathering information."

How did change happen?

Healthwatch North Lincolnshire did a survey and talked to local disabled women about the issues that they faced when trying to attend cervical screening appointments. They also called all GP practices in the area to find out if they had hoists in their facilities, but none of them did. 

Lorna took the results of this survey and contacted NHS England, the Department of Health and Social Care and even her local MP. She also met with the local healthcare partnership, along with Healthwatch North Lincolnshire and Cloverleaf Advocacy, about where and why hoists should be provided. 

What's next?

Lorna would like to see hoists provided in all GP surgeries and health clinics as they are built or renovated and believes that a hoist should be provided in at least one GP surgery in every primary care trust. 

This would more closely align with recommendations made by Healthwatch North Lincolnshire, but would also bring primary care more in line with the moving and handling policies specified by the Health and Safety Executive for the transfer of disabled people for examinations such as cervical screening and for other issues.

Lorna believes in equality in healthcare. That means equal access to cancer screening in a timely manner, resulting in better outcomes for people. Something as simple as providing hoists could help to save lives.