Warning over outsourcing of smear tests

The outsourcing of cervical smear tests to laboratories in the United States could lead to inconsistencies in the interpretation of results by Irish doctors, the Well Woman Centre warned today.

In a statement today, the centre says the move by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to outsource test analysis because of long delays in the Irish system could have serious ramifications for women with abnormal smears.

The method of reporting results in the United States varied substantially to what was used in Ireland, and some doctors were reluctant to carry out tests because of the difficulty in interpreting results, it said.

The centre's chief executive, Alison Begas, said: "While we welcome the fact that waiting times for smear results have fallen in recent months, the vastly different method used in reporting those results is an issue of concern for us."

Ms Begas said: "US laboratories speak a different 'language', and our doctors are being forced to translate from one system to another, without enough guidance."

"This compromises doctors and patients and could result in a potential abnormal result slipping through the net," she said.

In its annual report published today, the centre carried an analysis of 37,000 cervical smear tests taken over a 4.5-year period from 2002.

It found that 84.3 per cent of smears taken from women between 25 and 40 years of age produced a normal result..

Significantly, the report concluded that women from poorer social and economic backgrounds were more likely to have abnormal smear results.

In its analysis of patients referred to hospital for a colposcopy following an abnormal smear result, Well Woman's Coolock Clinic had higher referral rates than its other clinics at Liffey Street and Pembroke Road.

When further analysed, it was revealed that the highest referral rate for colposcopy was among medical card patients.

"When figures are broken down, it became apparent that those on the GMS have a significantly higher rate of referral than private patients, even those from the same geographical location," Ms Begas said.

The overall trend in the numbers attending for full Sexually Transmitted Infections screening in 2006 continued to increase, the report said.

The centre's three Dublin clinic conducted almost 2,000 full STI screenings in 2006, an increase of 500 tests on the previous year.