The NHS cervical screening programme audit of invasive cervical cancers: who benefits?

Abstract

Please cite this paper as: Moss E, Sherman S, Pearmain P, Redman C. The NHS cervical screening programme audit of invasive cervical cancers: who benefits? BJOG 2012;119:1–4.

Disclosing the results of the invasive cervical cancer review to patients: a survey of lead colposcopists across England

“…Despite the requirement for clinicians to offer a discussion about the review of their screening history to all patients and the guidance provided to support this, there is emerging anecdotal evidence, primarily arising from the external quality assurance (QA) process that disclosure is patchy, with some Trusts being selective about the women invited for a review meeting whereas other Trusts do not offer such meetings at all . Those Trusts that are selective may have well‐motivated reasons for not inviting certain women to a review meeting.…”

“…Despite the requirement for clinicians to offer a discussion about the review of their screening history to all patients and the guidance provided to support this, there is emerging anecdotal evidence, primarily arising from the external quality assurance (QA) process that disclosure is patchy, with some Trusts being selective about the women invited for a review meeting whereas other Trusts do not offer such meetings at all. 3,4 Those Trusts that are selective may have well-motivated reasons for not inviting certain women to a review meeting. For example, Prabakar et al 4 reported choosing not to invite women to a review meeting who have previously declined an invitation to attend cervical screening as this 'may be detrimental to their psychological well-being' specifically, wishing 'to avoid the feeling of irresponsibility or guilt on the part of the patients' (p. 169).…”