The National Screening Service has today (4 April 2023) launched a new review process for women who develop cervical cancer after screening, called personal cervical screening reviews.
Personal cervical screening reviews are being made available on request for all women who have had a cervical cancer diagnosis, and a CervicalCheck screening test in the 10 years before their diagnosis.
The review process was recommended by the 2020 Expert Reference Group Interval Cancer Report (CervicalCheck), which set out a new and comprehensive approach to reviews of interval cancers in people who have been screened by Ireland’s cervical cancer screening programme.
The personal cervical screening review process has been designed with input from women who participated in CervicalCheck and subsequently received a cervical cancer diagnosis. The design was overseen by a multi-disciplinary implementation committee with representatives from our NSS patient panel, the Irish Cancer Society, clinical experts, communications and programme staff.
Aim of personal cervical screening reviews
Every year in Ireland, around 290 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer, 170 of whom have previously attended for screening. Each of these 170 women diagnosed with cervical cancer is eligible to request a review.
The aim of personal cervical screening reviews is to help women (or their families) if they are looking for answers or ways to understand how and when their cancer developed. Reviews will provide women with an opportunity to ask questions about their screening journey, using a restorative approach tailored to each person’s circumstance.
About the review process
The review process will take about 18 months to complete and includes a review of how women were invited to their screenings; their screening test results; their colposcopy care, and their histology (biopsy) test results. For each part of the review we will explain if there is anything we should have done differently.
In addition:
- women will have a designated contact person throughout the review process
- women will be able to engage independent advocacy support during the review
- screening slides, colposcopy care and diagnostic slides will be independently reviewed by external reviewers
- we will meet women twice during their review and give them a copy of the review report to take away
- we will ask participants for their feedback on the process
Information about personal cervical screening reviews is also available on our website. As we build this new service we will develop our wider communications in conjunction with patient groups.
When we complete the review process for the first group of women and families, we will begin processing new review requests. People who are interested in a review can register their interest by emailing review.request@screeningservice.ie or by writing to:
Client Services
National Screening Service
King’s Inns House
200 Parnell Street
Dublin 1
D01A3Y8