Cervical screening

This section is provided for health professionals.

Members of the general public are welcome to use these pages but should be aware that they are not written with them in mind.

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Cervical screening is much more locally based than Breast Screening and involves smear takers in all GP practices and Cytology Laboratories and Colposcopy Clinics in almost all hospitals.

All services need to work closely with the Quality Assurance Reference Centre for South East Coast.

The QARC organises regular educational and business meetings for laboratory, colposcopy clinic and other programme staff across Kent Surrey and Sussex.

Those health professionals involved in the programme in East Sussex, Brighton and Hove meet every 6 months. The group includes representatives from the laboratories, colposcopy clinics, primary care, the QA Reference Centre and the Cancer Network as well as the public health leads of the PCTs. A similar West Sussex group meets annually.

The cervical screening programme is being modernised and liquid based cytology will be rolled out across Sussex in 2007.