Breast screening offered to women after missed appointments

Analysis by Public Health England (PHE) has shown that approximately 450,000 were not sent invitations for a final test for breast screening between their 68th and 71st birthday since 2009.

The routine NHS breast screening programme invites more than 2.5 million women every year for a test, with women between the ages of 50 to 70 receiving a screen every three years up to their 71st birthday. Although nearly two million women take up the offer, it came to light in January 2018 that up roughly 450,000 women were not sent their final invitation.

As a result, women who did not receive their final routine invitation and are registered with a GP are being contacted and offered the opportunity to have a catch up screen. Of the above figure, 309,000 women were not invited for a screen and are alive.

Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has commissioned an independent review of the NHS breast screening programme to look at issues, including its processes, IT systems and further changes and improvements that can be made to the system to minimise the risk of any repetition of this incident.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Hunt said that computer modelling suggested that between 135 and 270 women may have had their lives shortened as a result of the error.

Jenny Harries, PHE deputy medical director, said: “On behalf of NHS breast screening services, we apologise to the women affected and we are writing to them to offer a catch-up screening appointment. They and their families’ wellbeing is our top priority and we are very sorry for these faults in the system. A complex IT problem with the breast screening invitation system has led to some women not being invited for their final screen between their 68th and 71st birthdays. We have carried out urgent work to identify the problem and have fixed it. Additional failsafe systems have been introduced to ensure the problem does not reoccur.”