HC Deb 12 April 1988 vol 131 cc108-9W
Ms. Harman

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services in which health authorities the implementation of call and recall cervical cancer screening has been delayed by concern about(a) the capacity of pathology laboratories to cope with the additional smears and (b) surgical capacity to deal with the cases which need treatment.

Mrs. Currie

We are not aware of any.

Ms. Harman

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services with which district health authorities he has had discussions about the adequacy of the Exeter software used in the computerised call and recall cervical cancer screening programme; and what was the outcome of the discussions.

Mrs. Currie

The computer software for cervical cancer screening call and recall systems has been discussed with a number of users of that software, including district health authorities. Account is taken of those discussions as additions and amendments to the software are made.

Ms. Harman

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list those district health authorities who did not start to implement a computerised call and recall cervical cancer screening programme by 31 March; and if he will give the reasons for the delays.

Mrs. Currie

In my reply to the hon. Member on 10 March at column344 I stated that after 31 March we would publish a full list of district health authorities which had implemented computerised call and recall systems for cervical cancer screening. This information is being provided by health authorities and we shall publish a list when the information has been collected.