Cervical screening: laboratory HPV testing and cytology services
Recording and reporting requirements for laboratories in accordance with the primary high risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV) screening pathway.
Documents
Details
This guidance covers:
- the pathway for primary hrHPV screening
- the refinement of sample adequacy using findings from the Health Technology Assessment study
- information on what to include in the HPV-U reporting category
- call and recall codes for primary hrHPV screening
- the role and responsibilities for service leads
- advice for managers on laboratory organisation
It replaces:
- ‘Achievable standards, benchmarks for reporting and criteria for evaluating cervical cytopathology’ (2013), once a laboratory has implemented testing for high risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV)
- ‘Laboratory organisation: a guide for laboratories participating in the NHS Cervical Screening Programme (2003)’
This publication was originally published by Public Health England, which closed on 30 September 2021.
Updates to this page
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Added clarification that publication was originally published by Public Health England.
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Clarified that the presence of endocervical cells is not required for a negative report.
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Updated content on reporting hrHPV tests (section 2.9 and new section 2.11) and clarified the follow-up arrangements for women who have attended colposcopy (section 5.4). Updated Table 2 valid code combinations for HPV and cytology results and also content on clinical governance (section 7.5) and laboratory organisation (section 8.7 and section 8.8).
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Added new section (7.3): Automatic authorisation of primary HPV negative test results.
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Updated links in section 5.1 and section 5.4 of the guidance for cervical screening laboratories providing HPV testing and cytology services.
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First published.