§ Mr. Colemanasked the Secretary of State for Wales what is the average length of time taken in National Health Service laboratories in Wales to process and diagnose cervical smears.
§ Mr. Mark RobinsonThis information is not collected by the Welsh Office. In January informal inquiries of Welsh health authorities indicated that the time taken for test results to be notified varied between 48 hours and nine weeks of the test being taken. Apart from one laboratory, all were processing them within the eight weeks recommended by the joint NHS-Welsh Office working group on cervical cytology screening services in Wales, as the maximum time.