Daily Express

50,000 victims of cervical cancer testing blunders

- By Hanna Geissler

ALMOST 50,000 women did not receive “serious” informatio­n about their cervical cancer screenings, it was revealed yesterday.

Outsourcin­g company Capita, which was hired to do back-office tasks for NHS England, was slated by the British Medical Associatio­n after it failed to send out letters inviting women to screenings or giving them results.

Dr Richard Vautrey, chairman of the BMA’s GP committee, claimed there was “clear evidence” that Capita’s blunder had “put patient safety – and possibly lives – at risk”.

“This is an incredibly serious situation and it is frankly appalling that patients may now be at risk because of this gross error on the part of Capita,” he said.

“Some women will now be left extremely anxious because they have not received important correspond­ence, particular­ly letters about abnormal smear test results that need urgent follow up.

“This has been caused solely by Capita’s incompeten­ce.”

All women aged between 25 and 65 are eligible for the National Cervical Screening Programme.

This entitles them to a smear test every three to five years. The BMA claimed up to 48,500 women were affected by the error between January and June this year, 4,508 of whom had been left waiting to find out if they had cancer.

The remaining women should have been sent both an invitation to a screening and a reminder letter but received only one.

Capita has been responsibl­e for delivering NHS England’s primary care support service since September 2015.

This includes managing patient registrati­ons, payment administra­tions and organising NHS supplies for GPs, dentists, opticians and pharmacist­s across the country. Dr Vautrey added: “Since it took responsibi­lity for GP back-room functions three years ago, Capita’s running of these services has been nothing short of shambolic.

“It is ultimately NHS England that bears overall responsibi­lity and it must now take this service back in-house.”

Between 150 and 200 of the test results that were not sent out were abnormal results.

But NHS England said there was no evidence women had come to harm as a result of the error, as their GP or screening clinic should have contacted them directly.

Capita blamed the incident on human error. It said in a statement that the risk to the women involved was “low”.

A senior executive responsibl­e for the contract has left the company.

Earlier this year thousands of women missed out on breast cancer screenings due to an NHS IT system error.

In May, then health secretary Jeremy Hunt revealed that around 450,000 women were not sent letters inviting them to a final check up. He admitted that up to 270 women “had their lives shortened as a result” of the mistake.

 ??  ?? Jeremy Hunt revealed errors
Jeremy Hunt revealed errors

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom