Scandal over smear tests

IT IS appalling news that such large numbers of women have either not been reminded that they were due to take a smear test or were never sent the result. Lives have been put at risk by what the NHS has been calling an “administrative error”, as if it were on a par, somehow, with not ordering enough pens. This was a disgraceful act of incompetence on behalf of Capita, which is responsible for sending out the letters, and while a senior executive from the firm has now left, this is not enough.

A proper investigation must be held into this whole fiasco while every woman involved must be tracked down and given the proper information and reassurance. The chief executive at the charity Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust has said cervical screening is “not fit for purpose”. That certainly sums it up.