Tag Archives: smear tests expired

Limerick mum-of-two Vicky Phelan outside Government Buildings earlier this month

Niamh Cahill, in The Irish Times, reports:

Hundreds of smear tests performed on women in the CervicalCheck screening programme could not be read this year due to delays in processing them, new figures show.

The sharp rise in expired samples is linked to a surge in women seeking repeat smears following controversy over the programme since Vicky Phelan settled her court case last April.

the number of smears performed in CervicalCheck jumped by more than 50 per cent between July 2017 and July 2018.

In July this year, more than 27,200 smears were taken via the programme, compared to 18,700 in the same month in 2017.

…The data compiled by CervicalCheck on August 22nd reveals that 110 smear tests taken in July 2018 could not be read, as the samples had expired, a four-fold rise compared to the 27 expired samples recorded in July 2017.

Of the 110 tests, 87 had expired because they were not processed by a laboratory in a timely fashion. The remainder were expired vials from GPs.

Hundreds of cervical smears go out of date (Niamh Cahill, The Irish Times)

Previously: Numbers Remain Steady

Cruel Summer