Survey of smear taking practice in the former North Thames region

One hundred and seventy-seven doctors and 161 nurses from 230 clinics respo nded to a questionnaire on smear taking practice. The responses show that 6 6% of smear takers use the Aylesbury spatula and 30% use the Ayre spatula. A total of 53% use a cytobrush for selected cases. Training of smear takers and preparation of smears was satisfactory. Most (but not all) smear taker s routinely record clinical information on the request form. Only 20 cytolo gy laboratories in the North Thames region (70%) provide additional feedbac k to the smear takers about the quality of their smears apart from the info rmation on the request form. Our study shows that feedback is an area where interaction between the laboratory and smear taker could be encouraged.