Confidence in screening eroded by list of errors

CONFIDENCE in the national cervical screening programme has been eroded after a series of errors in taking and reading smears, writes Celia Hall.

Thousands of women have been recalled to be checked again. A number of women who were 'missed' have died. Cases include:

October 1994: 100 women in Mid Glamorgan recalled for repeat smears after laboratory errors were detected at Merthyr Tydfil Hospital.

June 1994: Two women wrongly cleared of disease at St Peter's Hospital, Chertsey, Surrey; 228 women recalled for tests.

February 1994: 4,000 women recalled for tests after Merton, Sutton and Wandsworth health authority discovered that a computing error had failed to recall women with slightly abnormal results, dating back to 1988.

October 1993: 700 women in Gateshead recalled when it was learnt their GP had used the wrong technique.

September 1993: 1,100 Birmingham women recalled after a nurse had used the wrong type of spatula for taking smears.

August 1993: 20,000 smears rechecked and 1,600 women recalled after laboratory errors at the Inverclyde Royal Infirmary, Greenock.

December 1991: A Hertfordshire family awarded pounds 87,322 after the wife and mother died when two positive smear tests were apparently ignored.

July 1988: 60 tests cleared by the Christie Hospital in Manchester believed to be abnormal.

September 1987: 500 women sought after errors at Liverpool Women's Hospital. Hospital inquiry found a 'massive error of professional judgement'.

September 1987: Reports that 65 per cent of Oxfordshire women who developed cancer should have had their disease spotted earlier from their smear tests.

1985: Three Oxfordshire women developed cancer, one died, because they were not told the results of their tests.