I think some of the reason is the way the problem occurs. When one
laboratory has a problem several thousand women in the same place are
affected overnight. Children whose CDH or undescended testicles are missed
occurs in different places at different times. It's a bit like the plane
crash and RTA deaths. One aircraft a fortnight crashing at Heathrow is more
impressive than 15 deaths a day on the roads. So it often comes down to
what sells newspapers I'm afraid. I suspect that is the reason the 200 or
so deaths a day due to the lack of an effective Government anti smoking
policy is not headline news every day.
Smear interpretation is not easy as has been pointed out in this thread. I
remember an interesting talk about the process of getting all the labs in
Wessex the produce similar percentage figures for unsatisfactory smears.
This is not CIN smears but the 'inflammatory' , 'no endocervical cells
seen' type of smear. Set this too high and too many have to be recalled
for a second smear unnecessarily, too low and you miss a CIN lesion which
has progressed by the time of the next smear in 5 years. This is all a very
grey area.
Stuart
> From: [log in to unmask] on behalf of Michael Durham
> Sent: 29 July 1998 11:07
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Cervical screening
>
> I would be fascinated to hear from anybody who can tell me why these
> screening catastrophes always seem to occur in cervical cancer
> screening.......and if there are any other areas of health which might be
> similarly prone to clinical errors/differences.
>
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