Cancer tests blunder: fears for 170 women

SCORES of women are being urged to come forward for urgent cancer checks amid major blunders over screening.

Cancer charities are worried that more than 170 women sent letters telling them they have been wrongly excluded from cervical checks have not come forward.

Scotland’s cervical screening programme is at the centre of an investigation after women were incorrectly classed as not requiring checks.

The fiasco involves women who have had partial hysterectomies where the cervix is left. So far, three women have been identified as having died of cervical cancer after being mistakenly removed from routine screening.

An audit carried out this summer found 434 women were either not called for screening when they should have been, or need checked to see if they have had a partial or full hysterectomy. A further 170 who had their hysterectomies at an earlier date are being contacted.

The medical records of 200,000 women are being checked amid fears some may have missed out on cancer screenings for decades.

This week at Holyrood Public Health Minister Maree Todd admitted ‘it is likely that more people will be discovered to have been wrongly excluded’.