§ Mr. Dobsonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services, further to his answer of 19 December 1985, Official Report, column 324, which health authorities are running call and recall schemes for cervical cancer screening.
§ Mr. HayhoeIn my reply to the hon. Member on 19 December at columns324–325 I listed those health authorities that in June 1985 either had implemented computerised call and recall systems or had firm plans to do so by the end of 1985. Health authorities will next be asked to report their progress towards implementing such systems in June 1986, as part of the normal planning and accountability process.
§ Mr. Dobsonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish such information as is held by his Department on the times taken by pathology laboratories to process cervical smears.
§ Mr. HayhoeThe information available to the Department is in general neither comprehensive nor in a publishable form. Furthermore, such information rapidly becomes out of date. Limited information from the British Society of Clinical Cytologists gave the result of a survey of 25 laboratories in one of its regions, which indicated that in the first half of 1985 it took less than four weeks to process a cervical smear in 10 laboratories, and between four and nine weeks in 15.
All health authorities are to be asked to give priority to improving their cervical cancer screening programmes including ensuring that laboratories can meet demand and avoid backlogs, which should not regularly exceed one month's work.