Effective System for Cervical Screening should already have been in place

Effective System for Cervical Screening should already have been in place

The Government’s latest comments that the recent review of its cervical screening programme should not be a cause for concern because they are part of a policy change designed to improve healthcare standards gloss over the shortcomings in the system which have been obvious now for years, since at least 2021 when the GSD first raised issues surrounding cervical screening.

Whereas the announcement that there are to be improvements to the system are of course welcome, it has raised many unanswered questions as to, not only cervical screening, but systemic issues within the GHA which must be impacting upon its proper functioning.

There is no escaping the fact that, even if clinical experts believe that the figure of women needing recall will be significantly lower than the quoted figure of 12,000, the real number is unknown and that raises very significant questions as to the state of the GHA’s electronic records, or records generally. The reality is that it should never have gotten to this point. The GHA should have been reacting to the demographic shifts, which are said by the Government’s medical experts to be a “natural part of healthcare planning and should not be viewed as a failure”.

The failure is that the Government did not respond to those changes in the makeup of our population for years and there have been missed opportunities for earlier, urgently needed, improvements to the system.

Consequently, if there is no knowing approximately how many women will require recall for cervical screening, then it will be difficult to plan for the potential surge of women that could need to use the service. It seems that, there hasn’t just been a lack of timely screening, there has also been a lack of appropriate record-keeping, resources and forward-planning.

The Shadow for Health, Joelle Ladislaus, said: “The aim of the opposition is not to be alarmist. The Minister knows that histrionics are not my style, indeed she often emphasises how reasonable and collaborative I am.

However, it is our responsibility to hold the Government to account and therefore I will continue to highlight issues where the standard of the service has fallen short of what the public should, rightfully, expect.

Especially where systemic failings, which we have been flagging for some time, such as a lack of resources, a lack of foresight and gaps in record-keeping, appear to have resulted in a gap in the service, as it has with cervical screening.”