Welcome to the BSCCP

The Society, which celebrated it's fiftieth anniversary in 2022, represents a common forum for the discussion and debate of all matters pertaining to the prevention of cancer of the cervix.

By its very nature the Society is multidisciplinary, a fact that almost certainly explains its strengths and continued growth. Members find membership, and particularly attendance at the Annual Scientific Meeting, a major influence in their practice and a key feature of their postgraduate education.

Change affects all branches of healthcare and cervical disease is no exception. The balance between basic science, epidemiology, clinical care and service/patient interface is a characteristic of the Society and is typified by the high standard and variety of papers presented at the Annual Scientific Meeting. Many of these presentations are available for viewing on the resources page of this website.

The BSCCP plays an important role in the training of colposcopists and ensuring a supply of high quality trained individuals to support the delivery of effective services. It has developed a training infrastructure to support this training and to ensure that colposcopists have an opportunity to stay up to date.

Colposcopy is well established in the United Kingdom as the investigation for those women presenting with abnormal cervical cytology (known previously as 'smears') or with other related cervical problems.

Colposcopy was initially described in 1925 but it was not until the 1960's that colposcopy started to get introduced in the United Kingdom. Now most hospitals will have services dedicated to this service.

In 2004/2005, there were almost 125,000 women referred to colposcopy for the first time in England. For 2021-2022, this figure has markedly increased to 235,223. In 68% of referrals the indication was on the basis of an abnormal screen test, 21% of referrals were for clinical indications and 11% were for other reasons. This includes individuals referred with hrHPV positive cytology negative results or following previous attendance at colposcopy.

The incidence of cervical cancer has shown a dramatic fall since organised screening was introduced in the United Kingdom in 1988. Organised screening programmes are most effective when the coverage of the population is more than 80%. In 2021/2022 in England the overall cervical screening coverage was 69.9%. Colposcopy services continue to play a vital role in the effectiveness of the Cervical Screening Programme.

The colposcopy service has several functions:

• Accept referrals from GPs and laboratories.
• Diagnose conditions from colposcopy examinations.
• Treat the condition.
• Take samples from the cervix (a biopsy) to obtain a diagnosis.
• Follow up treatment with further investigations if necessary.
• Discharge the patient back to the call-recall system (providing smear appointments with your family practice or family planning clinic).
• Run a failsafe system for checking the follow-up all patients treated.