Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
A trail of ‘failures’
produce and send invitation, reminder and results letters to women eligible for screening. But from January to June this year, 43,200 women were sent an invitation letter or a reminder, but not both.
The intended recipients of results should have received at least one notification from a GP or screening clinic – women with abnormal results require letters from two or three sources.
Around 4.5 million women receive invitations for screening annually.
More than 900 women die every year from cervical cancer.
Just months earlier it emerged 174,000 women had not been invited for breast cancer screening. Capita wasn’t involved in that service.
In this case, those who did not receive an invitation or reminder letter have been written to. It is believed 10,000 of them have already been tested.
Capita apologised and added that the correct process for “uploading, organising and checking” had not been followed.
The seniour executive responsible for the contract has now left the company.
NHS England said that its priority was to ensure that everyone affected was contacted.
In 2014 five of eight Liverpool NHS Trusts that had contracted recruitment and payroll to Capita withdrew.
In 2015 the Department for Work and Pensions sent civil servants in to help process payments to the seriously ill and the disabled.
Capita has reportedly been stripped of a contract for MOD military estates early.
It is responsible for the NHS’S Primary Care Support – heavily criticised by GPS.