Women in South Holland could be waiting up to three months for results from their routine smear tests.
There is up to a 12-week wait for the results which should take just a fortnight to come through.
Women are invited to have the procedure every three or five years, depending on age, and a range of conditions, including cancer, can be detected.
But the Derby-based laboratory which examines tests taken within South Holland is running with a backlog due to “insufficient screening capacity”.
In April of this year the lab sent a letter to surgeries outlining delays of more than eight weeks at a time. Now, many women attending for their routine smears are being told to expect a 12-week wait.
A change of testing procedure is being blamed for the delays as staff need to be trained and qualified for the new system.
Screening is changing to a system which tests for Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) which, according to the NHS, could prevent around 600 cases of cancer a year.
“We are sorry that some patients in some parts of Lincolnshire are currently waiting longer than expected for cervical screening test results. We are working closely with the screening services provider to free-up additional capacity so tests can be processed more quickly, and we expect waiting times for results to come down over the coming months,” said a spokesman for NHS England.
“We encourage women to continue to take up the opportunity of cervical screening when they are invited to do so,” she added.
“We are on track to deliver full coverage of HPV primary testing by the end of December 2019, which will lead to fewer samples needing cyto-screening than at present.”
In its April letter, the Derby lab said: “If women contact the surgery for their results sooner than this [eight weeks] please do not advice them to contact the laboratory for outstanding results.”
From May, most samples do not have a cytology slide made at the Derby lab, so any infections, including candida and herpes simplex will not be reported as they had been previously.
“Reporting of these infections is not a requirement of the national screening programme,” the letter added.
“Laboratories are struggling both to retain existing staff and to recruit qualified screening staff as the future for these staff is uncertain, with the number of labs being reduced from over 50 to a maximum of 13 in 2019,” added the letter.
The NHS website says it aims to have smear test results returned within 14 days.
With HPV primary screening, further tests are carried out if the virus is present in the sample. If not, routine screening is conducted again on the three or five year age-related schedule.
