COLPOSCOPY SERVICES PROVIDED BY GENITOURINARY MEDICINE CLINICS IN THE10ITED-KINGDOM - TISH-SOCIETY-FOR-COLPOSCOPY-AND-CERVICAL-PATHOLOGY NATIONAL COORDINATING NETWORK SURVEY, 1993

Postal questionnaires were circulated to all Genito-Urinary Medicine ( GUM) clinics in the UK (in parallel with questionnaires circulated to gynaecologists) on behalf of British Society for Colposcopy and Cervic al Pathology (BSCCP) and National Co-ordinating Network (NCN) to audit colposcopy services. Information was sought on colposcopy workload, r eferral criteria, treatment method and follow-up, waiting times, staff ing and training. A similar but less comprehensive survey of colposcop y services in GUM was undertaken in 1990 enabling direct comparison of some but not all aspects of the service in the last 3 to 4 years(1). One hundred and forty-two GUM Clinics replied. Of those who replied, 7 0 (49.3%) clinics provided a colposcopy service; an increase from 60 t o 70 clinics since 1990. However, only 66 clinics provided detailed in formation for analysis. Forty-six out of 66 (69.7%) clinics performed treatment for some or all of their patients and the most frequent meth ods of treatment used were loop excision and cold coagulation. One hun dred and seventy-two (range 8-1982) patients were seen per annum with a mean of 7 (range 1-68) colposcopy sessions per month. Sixty-four per cent of these sessions were undertaken by consultants, 14% by trainin g grades and the rest by Clinical Assistants and Associate Specialists . Fifty-three per cent of all patients with abnormal smears were colpo scoped within 2 weeks and the maximum waiting period was less than 8 w eeks for all severe dyskaryosis/malignant cells cytology reports; 1.6% of clinics admitted to having cases of invasive cervical cancer follo wing previous treatment of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) an d 96% of clinics had a protocol in place for defaulters. The default r ate was 12% both for new and follow-up patients. Thirty out of 70 (43% ) clinics were computerized and 50/66 (75.8%) of clinics collected acc urate statistics.