§ Mr. Dobsonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services in which health authorities, which have introduced computerised cervical cancer call and recall screening, the increase in the number of women covered is being limited by the need for more computer capacity than was originally provided.
§ Mrs. Currie[pursuant to her reply, 5 May 1987]: Health authorities were asked in 1966 to introduce cervical screening for women over 35 and in September 1971 it was announced that a central recall system would be introduced. In December 1981, a change from national to local recall was announced because the national recall system was found to be ineffective. In April 1985 we asked 431W health authorities to review the organisation of their screening programmes and to introduce a computerised call/recall system. In February 1987 we asked health authorities to extend their screening programmes to cover all women aged 20 to 65. These changes have created some problems for computer capacity.
The 40 district health authorities listed may be limited in the current operation of cervical cancer screening by the capacity of the computer equipment at the associated 22 family practitioner committees. The situation in these areas is being considered by the task force that we have set up under the direction of Sir Roy Griffiths.
- Barking Havering and Brentwood
- North Bedfordshire
- South Bedfordshire
- Bolton
- Bury
- Hartlepool
- South Tees
- North Tees
- Croydon
- East Cumbria
- West Cumbria
- South Cumbria
- Devon
- Exeter
- Plymouth
- Torbay
- Durham
- North West Durham
- South West Durham
- Darlington
- Gateshead
- Gloucester
- Cheltenham and District
- Basingstoke and North Hants
- Winchester
- Portsmouth and South East Hants
- Southampton and South West Hants
- Salisbury
- West Surrey and North East Hants
- Huddersfield
- Dewsbury
- Liverpool
- Newcastle
- North Tyneside
- Northumberland
- Rotherham
- South Tyneside
- Sunderland
- Tameside and Glossop
- Trafford