CAMPAIGNERS have hit out after figures showed women in East Yorkshire faced the longest wait for cancer screening results in the country.
A new report has shown Hull and the East Riding had the worst rates in the country last year for notifying women of the results of cervical screening tests.
More than 7,000 women had to wait longer than three weeks last year for their results when they should have been notified within two.
Julie Newman, a Hull mum-of-two diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2008, said: "Women should never have been waiting that long for their results.
"If I had to wait for my results, I would have died, as my cervical cancer was so advanced.
"Some of those women would have been absolutely distraught waiting for these results."
Of the 15,092 women tested in Hull between last year and this year, more than 23 per cent had to wait longer than three weeks for the results of their smear tests.
In the East Riding, 18,078 women were tested and just over 20 per cent waited longer than three weeks.
The report does not reveal exactly how long the women had to wait because of the numbers involved.
Hull Royal Infirmary transferred its work examining the results of smear tests to York Teaching Hospital in April last year.
Although 1,945 women were referred for further tests after signs of abnormalities, just under 71 per cent attended their appointments at colposcopy clinics.
Women aged from 25 to 64 are invited for regular cervical screening under the NHS Cervical Screening Programme.
The tests are intended to detect abnormalities that could, if undetected and untreated, develop into cervical cancer.
Women aged from 25 to 49 are invited for screening every three years, while women aged 50 to 64 should go every five years.
The report into England's Cervical Screening Programme by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) shows, nationally, just 77.8 per cent of women aged between 25 and 64 had been screened at least once in the past five years, a fall from 78.3 per cent last year and almost 81 per cent ten years ago.
Women aged from 25 to 29 are the least likely to attend screening tests every three years, with just 63 per cent getting screened within the previous three years by March this year. More than 81 per cent of women aged from 50 to 54 have been screened.
A spokesman for NHS England in North Yorkshire and Humber admitted women in Hull and the East Riding had been waiting too long for their results.
Since April, work has been done to improve the turnaround and latest figures show 99.5 per cent of women in Hull and 98 per cent of women in the East Riding are receiving their results within two weeks.
The spokesman said: "We are committed to ensuring a high-quality cervical screening service.
"We acknowledge the data held by HSCIC for 2013-14 regarding waiting times for cervical screening results was below the national standard.
"Since those figures were published, significant service improvements have been made, and current performance meets the national standard of 98 per cent of women receiving their result within two weeks of the sample being taken."
• Advice from Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust
95 per cent of patients given all-clearMOST women have screening tests at their GP surgeries or NHS community clinic and should be notified of the results within two weeks.
If results are normal, women will be recalled for a retest in either three or five years, depending on their age.
However, if tests show abnormal cell changes, the women are recalled to check for signs of Human Papillomavirus (HPV), a virus which can be linked to the development of cervical cancer if left untreated.
Women with signs of HPV are referred for a further examination known as a colposcopy.
During a colposcopy, a microscope examines the cervix to determine appropriate treatment and a biopsy may be taken for further tests.
In Hull and the East Riding, about 95 per cent of women screened had negative results.
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