A REVOLUTIONARY ten-headed microscope is being used at York Hospital to train staff to screen for cervical cancer.

The new microscope means that ten nurses can be taught at the same time, as opposed to one at a time - helping to speed up the screening process in North Yorkshire.

Charitable funds donated to York Health Services NHS Trust have paid for the "cutting edge" equipment.

Trevor Hair, head biomedical scientist, cytology, said: "In order to recognise cell abnormalities that indicate the presence of cervical cancer and other pre-malignant conditions, students need to be taught on a one-to-one basis. With this microscope we can teach up to ten students at once."

The microscope is located in the new cytology training laboratory, which was completed in February as part of a scheme to centralise cervical screening services across North Yorkshire.

Cytology is the study of single cells rather than body tissues, and the laboratory was built when the trust received £199,000 from the Government in July 2000. A further charitable donation of £8,000 allowed the trust to buy an additional five heads for the microscope.

Use of the microscope has already helped the first set of five trainee cytoscreeners - staff who screen cervical smears - to pass their cervical cytology exam with flying colours.

They are now fully qualified to screen cervical smears as part of the NHS Cervical Screening Programme. Trevor said: "To get five through their exams at the first attempt is brilliant. Without the microscope, this would not have been possible. This is tremendous news for the Department of Cytology, Laboratory Medicine at York, and for the women of North Yorkshire."

David Davis, MP for Haltemprice and Howden, has called for more action on cervical screening delays which he said leave 52 per cent of women in the northern and Yorkshire region waiting more than six weeks for their smear test results. Mr Davis has written to the Strategic Health Authority to urge for the necessary changes to ensure that results are available more quickly.

Updated: 08:54 Thursday, March 27, 2003