HOSPITAL pathology services are to be shaken-up in North Staffordshire after it emerged women wait longer than three-quarters of the rest of the country for smear test results.

Average delays are currently running at two months – but a new Government target says they must be slashed to two weeks by next year.

Despite the hold-ups, similar numbers of women are still coming forward for the screening as other districts and the rate of cervical cancer is falling locally.

Now health officials in the West Midlands are planning to "re-configure" services and see if hospital pathology labs where the samples are examined can work more closely together to speed up the turnaround.

And they are looking at using e-mail instead of letters to return results to GP surgeries to further speed up the process.

The proposed changes were unveiled as it was also revealed that only 45 per cent of North Staffordshire people invited to take part in a national bowel cancer screening programme introduced a year ago have accepted, against a national target of 60 per cent.

The eight-week wait for results of smear samples sent to the University Hospital of North Staffordshire plunges the area into the bottom 27 per cent for the country, according to a report by Stoke-on-Trent Primary Care Trust. The centre examines 34,000 smear slides a year.

The review is being led by the West Midlands Strategic Health Authority, as the problems also affect other parts of the region.

Stoke-on-Trent public health director Dr Giri Rajaratnam said he was "reasonably confident" the initiatives will help North Staffordshire hit the two-week target.

He said: "We recognise the need to improve these delivery times and are working with screening providers and other commissioners as part of a regional initiative to achieve the new national times."

He added that the current review solely involved NHS services, but in the longer-term the use of private laboratories could be considered.

Latest figures show that up to 82 per cent of women locally take up invitations to have smear tests every three years.

The city's new public health report on all types of cancer shows that while the death rate from the illness is falling, the improvements are slower than other areas.

A total of 1,848 people died of cancer between 2003 and 2007 with the highest fatality rates in Abbey Hulton, Bentilee and Cobridge and the lowest in Trentham, Hanford, Meir Park, Northwood and Birches Head.

Amanda Milward, a 37-year-old from Leek who conquered cervical cancer after surgery in Manchester, said: "If you are waiting months for results, it's a big worry because you automatically think they have found something wrong."