CELLULAR COMPOSITION OF CERVICAL SMEARS TAKEN BY GENERAL-PRACTITIONERS

The quality of the cervical smears taken by general practitioners, and also by some practice assistants, of the Dutch Screening Programme in the region of Nijmegen was evaluated, Of 18,398 preventive cervical s mears taken by GPs in this region, 437 (2%) were diagnosed as ''class' ' 0 and 2907 (16%) smears did not contain endocervical cells (EC-), Th e quality of the smears per general practitioner varied enormously, Th e percentage of smears without endocervical cells taken by six practic e assistants was 18, During the screening period the percentage of sme ars without endocervical cells taken by GPs decreased from 19 (1989) t o 14 (1992), In February 1990 the six practice assistants followed a t heoretical and practical course on cervical smear-taking, Remarkable w as the decrease in the percentage of smears without an endocervical co mponent from 25% in 1990 to 13% in 1991, The quality of smears taken b y GPs would improve if the general practitioner had more experience in smear-taking, We recommend to offer GPs the opportunity to take pract ical training courses in smear-taking, just as the practice assistants in this project.