Cervical Cancer Screening for women in Kosovo

The successful implementation of Cervical Cancer Program in Prishtina, Prizren, Mitrovica and Peja municipalities has led to the screening of 10,100 women since its start in 2016.

This year, we aim to introduce the program in the municipality of Gjilan and Obiliq, while increasing the quality and capacity of cervical cancer screenings in Prishtina, Prizren, Mitrovica and Peja municipalities.

There has been continuous cooperation between primary and tertiary healthcare levels, specifically between family medicine centers and the Institute of Pathology at the University Clinical Center of Kosovo through the development of a constant quality improvement plan that has resulted in the assessment and identification of gaps within the Institute of Pathology through the re-testing of Pap test samples. Thus, noting the importance of re-testing we aim to improve its quality through capacity building for pathologists. Currently, five pathologists have been enrolled to International Academy of Cytology Tutorial Korea, 2021- an online training which will be held on 16-18^th of July.  

Additionally, continuing capacity building training for healthcare professionals on how to take a Pap smear is necessary to achieve both higher quality and capacity, particularly for family medicine physicians who require the right to administer the test. Within this capacity building training is also the preparation for healthcare professionals on usage of the e-PapTest application that digitalizes administrative information and statistics, further enhancing the quality of the program.

With the intention of raising the number of women tested for cervical cancer, continuing advocacy activities such as classes, lectures, and media outreach with relevant stakeholders is required in coordination with increasing the capacity of the FMC’s. This year we have held awareness lectures with six different middle schools of Prishtina, Peja, Mitrovica and Prizren. Two more lectures are planned to happen in the last quartal of the year. In this way, the ability to handle a greater number of visits for testing will grow in parallel with the effort of increasing the incoming number of visits.