The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Holyrood urged to act over screening delays
The Scottish Government has been urged to take action to catch up on delayed cervical cancer screenings, as women wait waits of up to six months.
Pressure is mounting on ministers to deal with the screening backlog, after it also emerged women are facing longer waits to access treatment following a smear.
The screening programme has already fallen under the spotlight in recent weeks after it was revealed that one woman had died after being wrongly excluded.
Opposition MSPs have called for the government to take urgent action to clear the backlog, calling it a “ticking time bomb”.
Smear tests were paused at the start of the pandemic while the NHS rallied to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.
The programme restarted in a staged manner last July with those requiring more frequent smears receiving an invitation to make an appointment.
From September, routine screening began again for everyone else included on the programme.
But as a result of the pause women who require routine screening face a six-month delay in getting an appointment, with NHS bosses saying there is “insufficient capacity” to completely catch up with the backlog.
Scottish Labour’s health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said cancer services are “falling short” and accused the SNP of failing to understand the “urgency of the situation”.
She said: “Early diagnosis is the point of mass screening, and these delays undermine that. There are also delays in treatment.
“The cancer backlog is a ticking time bomb but there needs to be a greater sense of urgency from the government.”
New figures released earlier this week revealed there was also a significant fall in the number of cervical cancer patients who had been treated on time.
A total of 72.2% of referrals began treatment within 62 days of referral between January and March, a decrease from 88.9% in the previous quarter.
This follows the Scottish Government’s announcement on the final day of the parliamentary term that hundreds of women have been wrongly excluded from the cervical screening programme.
Public Health Minister Maree Todd said a “seriously adverse event” in Scotland’s cervical cancer screening programme resulted in around 430 women being incorrectly told they did not need checked over the last 24 years.
Annie Wells, Scottish Conservative health spokeswoman, described the potential six-month wait as “very concerning” and said women should be seen “as soon as possible”.
Dr Tasmin Sommerfield, consultant in public health medicine for national screening programmes within NHS National Services Scotland, said there is “insufficient capacity to completely catch up with the backlog of individuals on the routine screening pathway”.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “While measures to control coronavirus continue to pose capacity challenges, we are working closely with National Services Scotland and NHS boards, and all cancer screening programmes have offered routine screening since October.”
The cervical screening test (smear test) is a free health check for women between 25 and 64.
It is not a test for cancer but checks for a virus called HPV, which is the main cause of cervical cancer.
In March 2020, HPV testing was introduced into the cervical screening programme in Scotland.
Women who do not have the virus will therefore be invited for a cervical screening test every five years instead of every three years.
However, those who received their last smear test prior to the roll-out of the new HPV test would still be required to attend for a screening after three years to be checked.