1,500 practitioners join free smear test network

ALMOST 1,500 family doctors and practice nurses have signed up as smear-takers for the free national cervical cancer screening service available to women since yesterday.

A preliminary list of registered practitioners was published on the service website, cervicalcheck.ie, last night and it is to be updated continuously as additions are confirmed.

The ultimate aim of having every one of the country’s 2,500 GPs on board looks set to be achieved before long.

CervicalCheck chief executive Tony O’Brien said he was delighted with the medical community’s response. “Feedback to date has been extremely positive. Already 1,450 GPs, practice nurses, family planning and Well Woman clinics have sought to register. We anticipate the national coverage will build incrementally during the coming weeks.”

Under the new service, free smear tests are available to all 1.1 million women in Ireland aged 25-60 on production of their PPS (Personal Public Service) number. Any registered practitioner can be used for the test.

Jane Curtin, communications manager with the Irish Cancer Society (ICS), said the service was long overdue. “In the UK they’ve had cervical cancer screening since 1988 so we’re 20 years behind but what we have now is much welcomed.”

A survey by the ICS two years ago found that one in five women in the target age group had never had a smear test while others went for tests less frequently than recommended. “Some of the main reasons behind those statistics were fear, reluctance to go to a male doctor and cost,” Ms Curtin said.

“We’d hope that with the amount of information that’s available now, women would have no fears and certainly if they would rather go to a female smear-taker, they won’t have a problem finding one now. Cost was also an issue because a test could cost anything from €40-€80, even for medical card holders, but that won’t be a factor now.”

Once a smear is taken, it will be sent back to CervicalCheck headquarters and transferred from there to Quest Diagnostics, laboratory which won the tender to test the samples. Results will be sent directly to the women within four weeks and arrangements made for further tests and treatment if abnormalities are detected.

“Four weeks seems like a long time but it compares very favourably with the situation we’ve had up to now where women could be waiting months for the results of a routine test,” said Joan Kelly, head of nursing services with the ICS.

“The important thing to remember is that the test is not looking for cancer — it’s looking for the slight abnormalities in cells in the cervix that can be a sign that cancer may develop. Once those cells are detected and treated, the chances of cancer developing are massively reduced.”

About 985 cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed in Ireland every year and around 70-80 women die of the disease annually.

By contrast, Britain, which has had screening for the past two decades, has just over twice the number of new cases as Ireland has, despite having a population 15 times larger.