MANY women in Suffolk are getting their cervical screening results back within seven days - thanks to a new pilot scheme to speed up the results of cervical screening.

MANY women in Suffolk are getting their cervical screening results back within seven days - thanks to a new pilot scheme to speed up the results of cervical screening.

Screening results that are not part of the pilot are taking between just 14 and 21 days to reach the individuals screened - against a national target of 42 days.

NHS Suffolk, working with local providers, is part of a pilot programme to make sure that women waiting for their test results do not have to wait as long. There were 10 pilot sites across England. Suffolk is also doing well generally.

All women aged between 25 and 64 are called for cervical screening every three to five years to reduce the number of people who develop cervical cancer. Cervical cancer affects more than 2,000 women a year in the UK, causing about 400 deaths. Screening checks to see if there are any changes in the cells around the cervix, which, if left alone, can develop into cancer.

Hossein Khaled, lead for screening at NHS Suffolk, said: “This is really important. We know that waiting for results can cause stress and anxiety among women and reducing the waiting times relieves some of that. NHS Suffolk applauds everyone involved in making this work well for women in Suffolk. It is even more commendable since we have seen on average that 28pc more women are responding to their screening invitation compared with last year.

“Attending screening means that any abnormal changes in the cervix are caught early and, if needed, treated and I would urge people to respond when they are called for screening.”

It is a Department of Health requirement to make sure that by December 2010 all cervical screening test results are returned within 14 days.