GPs are being urged to offer home-based self-collection of HPV DNA for the cervical test in underscreened women as the nation contends with another round of COVID-19 lockdowns.

Screening expert Professor Marion Saville, from the VCS Foundation in Melbourne, says many GPs are unaware they can arrange home-based collection, including for telehealth patients, from wherever they are in Australia.

“The proportion of self-collection tests … is still very low, at about 1.4% of all the cervical screening tests that we process at VCS Pathology,” she says. 

“This low uptake is due to a lack of awareness of the self-collection pathway among GPs and the community, and the strict criteria make it more challenging for GPs to work out which patients are eligible.”