§ Dr. GodmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will estimate the number of women who have had to undergo medical and/or surgery treatment as a result of the reported misreading of cervical smear test slides at the Inverclyde Royal hospital; what forms of treatment have been taken; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Stewart[holding answer 2 February 1994]: The re-reading of the cervical smear slides at Inverclyde Royal hospital led to around 440 women requiring further investigation and/or treatment. It is not possible to say how many of these patients required treatment as a result of the original misreporting of the smear results.
The forms of treatment include colposcopy without biopsy, colposcopically-directed selective biopsy, cold coagulation and conization of the cervix.
§ Dr. GodmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the procedures adopted by the Argyll and Clyde health board in response to the misreporting of the cervical smear tests at the Inverclyde Royal hospital, Greenock.
§ Mr. Stewart[holding answer 2 February 1994]: Argyll and Clyde health board accepted the main thrust of the recommendations directed at them by the Inverclyde inquiry report and a task force was set up to advise the board on the action to be taken.
The proposals by the task force are to be implemented through a comprehensive purchasing plan based on service specification for all components of the board's cervical screening programme including targets and quality control procedures. The purchasing plan is to be presented to the board for approval at its meeting in February and it will be for provider units to deliver the service required through contracts.
The task force is also currently considering the implications of the rationalisation of the cervical cytopathology services. An extensive consultation exercise is currently underway involving relevant laboratory consultants, clinicians and outside experts. The task force is expected to complete this exercise and report with recommendations to the board by May.
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§ Mr. Stewart[holding answer 2 February 1994]: The information requested on the appointments made by my right hon. Friend to the board of the Inverclyde Royal and Rankin Memorial hospital NHS trust is set out in the table. Details of the executive members of the board, who are appointed by the non-executive directors, are not held centrally.
§ Dr. GodmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many women underwent cervical smear tests in each of the health board areas for the latest available year; what these figures are as percentages of women of the appropriate age range; what is the proportion of those who develop carcinomas before being recalled; and what is the recall period for each region.
§ Mr. Stewart[holding answer 2 February 1994]: Information is available only on the number of smears processed and not the number of women examined. Figures for 1992—the latest available—are as follows:
Number of cervical smears examined Percentage of eligible population Scotland 485,368 84.6 Argyll and Clyde 41,769 80.5 Ayrshire and Arran 33,925 85.8 Borders1 — 91.6 Dumfries and Galloway 12,921 91.2 Fife 32,656 88.0 Forth Valley 30,658 85.6 Grampian 54,897 90.2 Greater Glasgow 87,424 80.1 Highland 24,290 88.1 Lanarkshire 45,177 79.7 Lothian 86,294 85.4 Orkney1 — 91.8 Shetland1 — 91.6 Tayside 35,357 87.3 Western Isles1 — 78.8 1 Smears of women in Borders, Orkney, Shetland and Western Isles health board areas are included in figures for Lothian, Grampian (Orkney and Shetland) and Highland health boards respectively. Information on the proportion of women who develop carcinomas before being recalled is not available.
All health boards in Scotland are now operating a three-year call/recall system.
§ Mr. DonohoeTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, pursuant to his answer of 20 January,Official Report, column 759, whether the target time of 14 days for the processing and notifying the results of cervical smear tests includes the processing time for general practitioners, hospitals or clinics to report the results to their patients.
§ Mr. Stewart[holding answer 2 February 1994]: Yes.
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§ Dr. GodmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many women living, or formerly living, in the catchment area of the Inverclyde Royal hospital have as yet not been traced in relation to the recall programme following the discovery of the misreporting of cervical smear test slides at the hospital's cytology laboratory; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Stewart[holding answer 2 February 1994]: As of 31 January 1994 there were 16 women with non-negative results on rescreening still to be traced. Of these 15 are believed to be in the United States, and one woman in Europe. The health board is continuing to pursue links to trace the remaining women. Approaches have been made to the United States internal revenue service to ascertain whether they can help in tracing the women.