Independent report of Trust Cervical Screening services
In July 2022, senior laboratory staff notified the Trust’s management team that they had concerns about performance in some steps of their laboratory’s screening system. To fully investigate these concerns, the Trust commissioned the Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath Consulting) to undertake an independent assessment of its cervical screening services from 1 January 2008 and October 2021.
The RCPath Risk Assessment Report published on 9th October 2023 found that whilst the majority of negative results issued by the laboratory were correct, a significant number of women are likely to have had negative screening results from the Southern Trust laboratory which would have been identified as potentially abnormal by other laboratories.
Patient letter
As a precautionary measure, the Southern Trust is to review the records of about 17,000 (Seventeen Thousand) women screened during the period in question. The purpose of the review is to look again for abnormalities to double check that the correct information was provided.
In the majority of cases, we will be able to review the previous smear, which is stored in our laboratory, but in some cases, we will invite women to attend for a further smear test. The Trust is writing to all women whose records will be reviewed with further information. There is no need for women to contact their GP to make an appointment for a smear test unless they have recently received an invitation to attend for one as part of the routine screening programme.