Fast-track appointments for women ‘wrongly excluded’ from screening

Health boards have contacted 174 women who may have been “wrongly excluded” from the cervical screening programme to offer them new fast-track appointments.

The action comes after public health minister Maree Todd told MSPs in June that a woman had died after this happened to her. Since the error was revealed, health boards have reviewed the records of 484 patients, with 174 of these women now being contacted to make appointments for cervical cancer checks.

The Scottish Government confirmed 39 women who were wrongly excluded but still within the age range for cervical screening had been reinstated to the programme, and have been asked to contact their GP to arrange a smear test.

Meanwhile, 46 women who are now no longer eligible for screening due to their age have been written to and offered an appointment at a gynaecology clinic.

Similar appointments are being offered to 89 women after their medical records failed to show if excluding them from screening was the correct decision.

In addition to this, efforts are being made to trace a “small number of women” who are no longer living in Scotland.

And while the audit showed 204 women were correctly excluded from the screening programme, with no further action needed, a review is being carried out into the cases of 100 women who have since died, in order to determine whether cervical cancer was responsible for or contributed to their death.

174 women have been contacted over cervical checks.