The outgoing director general of the HSE was warned more than a decade ago that outsourcing the analysis of cervical cancer screening results could lead to the type of crisis which has now engulfed the system.

THE Health Service Executive (HSE) has attributed an unprecedented surge in the demand for cervical screening in 2009 to the death from cervical cancer of Big Brother star Jade Goody.

POORER women are more likely to have abnormal smear test results than those who are better off, new figures reveal.