WOMEN throughout Bolton have been forced to wait EIGHT weeks for smear test results.

Changes in the frequency of tests - women are now recalled every three instead of every five years for cervical cytology - and long term staff sickness resulted in the delays in the screening unit at the Royal Bolton Hospital.

At a meeting of Wigan and Bolton Health Authority, Brenda O'Driscoll, the director of commissioning, said a letter had been sent to the trust expressing the authority's concerns.

She said: "Delays in sending out results obviously caused a great deal of anxiety among women and at our last meeting the authority discussed the possibility of sending some tests out to other screening centres.

"Now, however, the member of staff on long term sick has returned and efforts have been focused on reducing the waiting times still further.

"During my last conversation with the trust I was informed the results were being sent out after 25 working days."

A spokesman for Bolton Hospitals NHS Trust said: "Due to the change in the frequency of the tests for women from every five to every three years the cytology department at the Royal Bolton Hospital processed 28,000 smears last year and is expecting the same number this year. The previous number was 22,000.

"Although at one stage in April staff sickness contributed to a temporary delay in test results, the diligence of the cytologists and overtime working means that there has been a constant fall during May, June and July to the current level of 19 working days.

"We have recently recruited an additional biomedical scientist and an additional cytology screener, although the training for these is lengthy."

Dr Brian Senior, clinical director, pathology, said staff always aimed for the standard but they were not prepared to sacrifice accuracy in order to take short cuts.

He said: "We do understand that women become anxious while waiting for test results.

"However, occasionally there are delays, for example because of sickness, or because of the lengthy period necessary to train new staff properly when a vacancy occurs.

"But our cytologists have worked hard to deal with the increased number of tests while maintaining the very highest standards."

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