ACTION is needed urgently across Wales to encourage more women to attend for cervical screening - known as a smear test - says a charity.

By March 31 this year, 76.1 per cent of women in Wales in the target age group (25-64 years) had been screened with an adequate result at least once in the last five years.

But this was the lowest recorded percentage in 17 years of reports from Cervical Screening Wales - and should be cause for "huge concern", according to Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust.

“I’m disappointed to see cervical screening attendance in Wales has declined once again and has dropped across every age group," said Robert Music, the charity's chief executive.

"If we don’t act now, we will sadly see more cervical cancer diagnoses and families losing loved ones to the disease.

"Cervical screening protects against 75 per cent of all cervical cancers developing, so it is a really important test and a huge concern that attendance continues to fall.

"We know there are many reasons why women don’t attend, including physical, cultural, social and literary barriers. We also know that access is a growing factor with more and more women struggling to get appointments.

"Wales has made real headway by being the first UK country to introduce HPV (human papilloma virus) primary testing into its cervical screening programme. It’s a much more effective and reliable test which will save lives.

"However, we must not lose focus of the urgent need to increase attendance, otherwise fewer numbers will benefit.

"Health boards in particular should use the data available to identify who their non-attenders are, and develop initiatives to reach them. It is only through local and national action that we will see fewer women affected by this awful disease.”

Five-year coverage of women aged 25-64 in Gwent (Aneurin Bevan University Health Board) at March 31 this year was above the all-Wales average, at 77.5 per cent. This was the second highest rate of Wales' seven health board areas, behind Powys (78.2 per cent).

While screening uptake was down again, there was a significant improvement in the year to March 31 in smear test result times.

More than 140,000 women attended a smear test in Wales in 2017/18, and in almost 55 per cent of cases, test results were issued within two weeks of a smear being taken, up from 36 per cent the previous year.

Ninety-five per cent of results were issued within four weeks, meeting the four-week target.