Women across Oxfordshire will have to do without the latest smear testing technology to combat cervical cancer until 2008.

Many women in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire are still being denied access to the most effective smear testing technology, due to unacceptable delays in funding, according to leading sexual health agency Marie Stopes International.

The charity has launched a campaign to increase NHS availability of smear tests using the liquid-based cytology technique, in accordance with recommendations made by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (Nice) in October 2003.

Dr Kate Worsley, head of medical development at MSI, said: "Yet again, the women of this country are facing the NHS postcode lottery syndrome.

"The irony is that delaying implementation is really a false economy. As the Nice report clearly showed, in the longer term, liquid-based cytology is cost effective, producing a win-win situation for NHS budget holders and women who are part of the national cervical screening programme."

Evidence from large-scale NHS pilot studies conducted four years ago proved that the new technique produced clearer samples that are easier to interpret by laboratory technicians - reducing repeat screenings by up to 80 per cent.

In 2003, Nice recommended that liquid-based cytology be universally adopted by the NHS across England and Wales within five years, and £7.6m was allocated to strategic health authorities to implement the new technology.

However, after two thirds of the recommended period for introducing the NICE guidance, only two out of the 11 SHAs in England and Wales have completed the conversion.

Dr Jennifer Smith, consultant in public health for NHS South Central Strategic Health Authority, said the new screening method was already being used in Portsmouth and High Wycombe.

She added: "Cervical screening is a top public health priority for NHS South Central and we have introduced robust and rigorous processes to modernise cervical smear testing services in line with national guidance.

"Implementation of liquid-based cytology technology has had to be staggered across the country to match the capacity of trained staff with the cervical smear screening workload."

She added that implementation in Oxfordshire will start in late 2007, and the new system would be in place by November 2008.

The two methods

* A cervical screening test, carried out by GPs, helps to detect cellular changes, which, if left untreated, could develop into cervical cancer. In the UK, more than 2,800 women are diagnosed every year.

* Traditional tests use a wooden spatula to collect cells from the cervix. These are then smeared on to a slide for visual analysis.

* The method is unsatisfactory, and leads to 10 per cent of women being recalled, which is distressing as they mistakenly believe their first test showed abnormalities.

* With liquid-based cytology, cell samples are collected with a specially developed brush, which is then suspended in a vial of liquid preservative, before being subjected to a computer-controlled filtration process, to produce an evenly spread sample of cells.

* It is estimated that the National Cervical Screening Programme is directly responsible for cutting the annual death rate from cervical cancer by half.