| Tayside has the lowest failure rate in Scotland for cervical smear tests, but preparing for a switch to a new system has pushed the time it takes to process samples to almost double the national average, writes Grant Smith.
NHS figures for the first three months of this year show that only 4.2% of the 8787 smears examined in the region were of unsatisfactory quality.
Across the whole of Scotland, 7% of the 106,811 tests were unsatisfactory. The rates varied considerably from area to area, with Fife on 8.1% of its 8025 tests and Lothian having the worst record on 10%.
When smears are not good enough to be examined properly, the women they were taken from have to undergo the inconvenience and stress of a repeat test.
NHS chiefs and Scottish Executive ministers have been keen to cut the number of unsatisfactory tests and millions of pounds are being invested in a new method called liquid-based cytology. Ninewells Hospital in Dundee was chosen to pilot this technology, which involves cell samples being placed in a preservative fluid before being sent to the laboratory.
Compared to the old method of the samples being prepared on a slide, it is less likely to result in the damage that makes accurate testing impossible.
A downside to the move towards introducing the system in Tayside has been a temporary increase in the length of time it takes to process samples.
In the last quarter of 2002, Tayside had averaged 16 days for a smear to be tested and the results reported back, against a national average of 13 days.
However, between January and March, the region recorded a 23-day average against a national average of 12 days.
The NHS information and statistics division said the increase was “a result of staff being trained in the use of liquid-based cytology.”
Fife has by far the best record in Scotland for processing samples, with an average of only three days during the first quarter of the year, down from 10 days in the last quarter of 2002. That was said to be due to “improved accuracy in recording”.
Liquid-based cytology should be in place in all cervical screening centres by April 2004. It should mean it will take less time to examine samples.
Women aged between 20 and 60 are invited for screening every three years in the hope of detecting early any abnormalities that might lead to cancer. During 2002/03, almost 440,000 smear tests were carried out in Scotland, including 32,000 each in Tayside and Fife.
Cervical cancer remains relatively rare. Last month Dr Margaret Kenicer, who runs the Tayside screening programme, said there had been only 17 new cases in the region during 2002. |
