According to a devastating review of NHS screening, a backlog of more than 150,000 cervical cancer screening samples pending testing has been allowed to be set up in all laboratories in England.
The National Audit Office discovered at one point last year that only one third of smeared women had their results within 14 days.
This suggests that hundreds of thousands of people need to worry imprudently and potentially delay the completion of other tests or treatments for the treatment of abnormal cells that may become cancerous.
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No NHS screening program, including those for bad and bowel cancer, has reached its target the previous year for screening patients – although cervical cancer Uterus was the worst performer, according to the NAO report.
Screening changes, which detect the human pappilomavirus (HPV) that is responsible for the majority of cervical cancers rather than manually looking for abnormal cells, were announced in 2016.
This decision will reduce the number of laboratories needed for screening from 48 to nine. According to the NAO, this would have resulted in an exodus of staff "looking for greater security of employment".
This led to "a drop in performance compared to the timeout targets" and to an accumulation of samples waiting for testing, the NAO said.
Last year, it follows that nearly 50,000 women missed screening invitations or their results due to issues related to outsourced service elements in Capita.
It was also feared that hundreds of thousands of missed invitations to bad cancer screening led to the untimely death of hundreds of women – though this was revised downward thereafter.
The NAO has had problems with outdated computer systems, which means that people may not receive invitations to cancer screening.
"All screening programs rely on a complex and aging computer system to identify who to invite to participate in screening," the report says.
NHS England intended to replace it in 2017, but the process has now been delayed, resulting in "additional cost and increased risk that screening services can not identify and reliably invite eligible populations to be screened" .
Labor MP Meg Hillier, Chair of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, said that he was "concerned that not everyone eligible to participate in screening programs will do so".
She added, "Screening programs are not always able to detect people who are not invited to an appointment for screening or to ensure that people receive the results of their tests. on time."
Robert Music, general manager of Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust, said: "Over the past year, many women have voiced their concerns about late results and it's just unfair that women experience undue stress as a result of failures in program management. "
A spokesman for the Ministry of Health and Social Services said, "Prevention and early diagnosis of cancer are key priorities for this government. We are already working closely with NHS England and Public Health England to address the issues highlighted by this helpful report.
"An independent study announced by NHS England focuses on cancer screening services. We expect this to lead to a complete overhaul of the system, so that it meets the high expectations of NHS patients. "