5:00pm Monday 9th November 2009
MORE women in Bolton are coming forward for smear tests — but the rise has meant a backlog in results being issued.
Now extra staff have had to be hired to work in laboratories to help speed up the length of time it takes to get results.
The latest figures from the NHS Information Centre show an extra 700 people had the test for cervical cancer between April 2008 and March this year, compared to the year before.
But many of the 70,300 women did not get their results for a long time, several hundred waited more than 12 weeks; just under 5,000 women did not receive them for 10-12 weeks and more than 10,000 people waited eight to 10 weeks.
However NHS Bolton is pleased more women are being screened, with statistics showing improvements in both the 25-49-year-old age range and 50-64-year-old category.
A spokesperson said: “It’s great news that the number of women coming forward for screening has increased, but it’s important that we continue to work on improving the time taken for results to come through and ensure we can continue to cope with increased numbers.”
The primary care trust says the time taken for results of cervical smears to come through stood at around 11 weeks about three months ago.
The main reason for the delays was the increase in women taking up the opportunity to have a smear test, the PCT said.
The organisation says it recognised this was not acceptable and additional staff were recruited to work in the laboratories to help clear the backlog.
NHS Bolton says as a result the wait is now down to an average of six weeks, but it wants to make further improvements.
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