A WOMAN has said she is frustrated she might have to wait at least six months to receive her smear test results.

Jade Haley went for her first smear test at her Worcester GP on December 18.

But, she was told due to the backlog which built up after Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust took over the service in April 2019, she will have to wait around six to eight months to get her results.

Miss Haley, aged 24, said: “It’s so important to go and get it done so I urge people to do it, but then surely, they need to change things to manage the testing time so it can be properly preventative. Let’s hypothetically say now that I had some abnormal cells that needed removing, if I don’t get them back until March time, what if the abnormal cells have got much worse and it’s more difficult to remove? It takes out the whole reason of getting it done in my opinion which is really sad.”

She added: “The lady made me feel super comfortable and after the test I asked when I’d get the results. The nurse said that usually it takes two weeks, but because they get sent to Wolverhampton now it is causing a huge delay.”

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Miss Haley said she would still urge women to have a smear test, adding: “I would say to women it is really important to get it done, because it can save your life and your life is so much more important than about five seconds of discomfort. But I do think that this delay is a disgrace because it removes the preventative element of it.”

A new way of cervical screening was rolled out in December as part of the NHS Long Term Plan. NHS experts said that there is “potential” to eliminate cervical cancer completely thanks to the change within the NHS Cervical Cancer Screening Programme, combined with the effectiveness of the HPV vaccine. The new test now looks for traces of high-risk HPV which means that any sign of infection will be spotted at an earlier stage before it could potentially develop into cancer.

A spokesman said: “The NHS has now rolled out a new way of testing for cervical screening that will prevent hundreds of cases of cervical cancer every year and ultimately save lives. Local areas are working hard to minimise any delays to results, which are expected to be back on track shortly.”