Women wrongly told not to have cervical checks

WOMEN were put at risk at the hands of a company contracted to perform NHS cancer screening, a report warns.

Capita wrongly told 87 patients they no longer needed cervical cancer checks, the National Audit Office found. Women aged 25-49 are meant to be offered ‘smear tests’ every three years.

A further 1,963 screening invitations meant to be sent out to women in July and August 2016 were delayed.

Although the mistakes did not result in any harm, they will raise further concerns about the NHS’s cancer screening.

This month Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt admitted up to 270 women had died from breast cancer after not being invited to routine mammograms.

Capita has a £330million nine-year contract with NHS England and has promised to cut costs of running GP services by 35 per cent. Meg Hillier MP, of the Commons public accounts committee, said this was ‘over-ambitious … and potentially put patients at risk’.

Dr Richard Vautrey, of the British Medical Association, said Capita’s service was ‘poorly thought-out and woefully-run.’

A Capita spokesman said: ‘It has been acknowledged that performance has improved. Capita will continue to work with all parties to address the small number of remaining service issues.’