Role of general practitioners in cervical screening

All general practitioners and other clinicians responsible for requesting tests have the responsibility of:

• providing women with the necessary information and advice to make an informed choice regarding whether to participate or not
• maintaining a register of tests done by the patient
• to ensure that the woman's address on the test request form is up to date
• making sure that there is a system which informs women of her test results in writing e.g. - may be through the routine call and recall system administered by the primary care trust
• ensuring the women who fall outside the call and recall system (eg temporary residents, women not registered with a GP and women requesting 'no correspondence') receives their test results
• ensuring that for every sample taken a test result has been issued by the laboratory
• acting on non-responder notifications for women who have not responded to an invitation for routine tests, early repeat test and colposcopies
• referring a woman for colposcopy, if required
• handing over the test result in person when urgent referral is indicated
• responding to failsafe enquiries by laboratories (1)

Reference:

• 1. NHS Cancer Screening Programmes 2004. Guidelines on failsafe actions for the follow-up of cervical cytology reports