An additional 3,591 women have not received information about NHS cervical cancer screening. Capita, (or as Private Eye rightly calls them Crapita) contracted to send out screening invitations, have boobed AGAIN. Yet another administrative error! When will the Government stop awarding them contracts?
Most of the unsent letters were invitations or reminders to attend for screening, but some were about abnormal test results. But fear not – NHS England says “there is no evidence of any harm having resulted from these issues, now dating back to 2017”. Which begs the question why carry out the tests if no-one checks missing follow-ups?
Capita says that these 200 or more women with abnormal results still had the correct clinical follow-up investigations, despite the correspondence failure. How do they know? Apparenty women with abnormal results should be sent letters from two or three sources, not just Capita on behalf of Primary Care Support England, doubling or trebbling the Admin workload, No wonder the NHS costs so much to run.
A spokesman for Capita said the company “apologises” for the mistake. The correct process for “uploading, organising and checking” had not been followed and appropriate disciplinary action was being taken. “These administrative failures were uncovered by a clinically led panel, convened by NHS England following a serious incident confirmed by Capita earlier this year. “Primary Care Services England, run by Capita, has accepted its responsibility for these errors.”
Yah Yah Yah. And yet again this company is allowed to get away with appalling service. One wonders how many other incidents will be uncovered during the run-up to Brexit, which is currently been used to cover up bad stories.
Robert Music, chief executive of Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust, said: “Frankly, it is appalling that thousands of women have been affected by a further error. At a time when cervical screening attendance is falling, we cannot afford for faith to be lost in the programme. This could result in more women not taking up their invite. Waiting for results can already be an anxious time and failures such as this are only adding further stress to women.”