All aboard the cervical screening bus: how NHS clinic-on-wheels is saving lives

Exclusive: With no appointment needed and a relaxed environment, bus clinic encourages more women to be checked

I t’s 10am on one of the main pedestrian shopping streets in Warrington, and already there’s a queue of women outside a small bus the size of a supermarket delivery van. While some look calm, others are visibly nervous. This is no mobile library, post office or coffee truck – but one providing far more intimate services: cervical screening.

The bus feels surprisingly spacious. There’s a consultation area with room for the nurses, patients and anyone accompanying them to talk. Behind it, a separate room holds a bed, room to get changed and storage for all the clinical equipment. Purple lighting, smart decor and spa music add to the minimalist ambience.

Catherine, 26, is the first in the queue. She has never had cervical screening before. She says the fact that it is a bus, with people she doesn’t know, persuaded her to go ahead with it. “I didn’t go for screening before because there’s only one nurse at my doctor’s and she’s my asthma nurse,” Catherine says. “So it felt too familiar.”

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women, according to the World Health Organization . Its cervical cancer strategy states that by 2030 all countries should screen 70% of girls and vaccinate 90% of girls by the age of 15.

But NHS figures show there are just over 4 million women in England who are not up to date with their cervical screening, and that number is rising. According to OECD data , in the decade since 2014, screening rates in England have fallen eight percentage points to 69%, the fourth steepest drop behind Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Turkey.

According to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, women from ethnic minority backgrounds, disabled women, LGBTQ+ people with a cervix, and those in deprived areas are less likely to be up to date with screening.

In 2024, in a move to improve take up, Living Well buses started running walk-in cervical screening clinics in Cheshire and Merseyside. Funded by NHS England North West, the service was so popular that this summer it expanded into neighbouring regions. Now, two buses run 10 cervical screening sessions a week across Lancashire and South Cumbria, as well as Cheshire and Merseyside. From October, the service will start going to locations in Greater Manchester.

Jill West, one of the nurses running the clinic, says mobile screening is game-changing. “The bus is fantastic. Women can sometimes forget about their own health – they’ve got children to think about, work to think about, they can’t get a convenient GP appointment, or fit it in with their menstrual cycle. So the bus is perfect because it’s advertised and women can come along and get screened without having to make an appointment.”

This morning session certainly seems to be working. Peggy, 57, works in the NHS but says she had to sneak out of her shift to come to the bus and is very overdue for screening. “I’ve had smears before but I can’t remember when the last one was,” she says.