Twigg calls for answers over screening scandal

ANSWERS are being in sought in Halton over how many women might have been affected by the national breast screening scandal.

Derek Twigg MP has written to NHS Halton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to request details on the numbers of patients affected including if and how many have died.

The scandal was revealed by the Government last week as Jeremy Hunt apologised for what a cancer charity has branded a ‘colossal’ blunder that meant 450,000 women aged between 68 and 71 years were not invited for screening due to an IT glitch from 2009 onwards, with up to 270 women estimated to have died as a result.

Of those, about 150,000 are believed to have now died, many due to other illnesses.

Mr Hunt revealed the scandal in the House Of Commons last Tuesday, and said computer modelling estimated that between 135 and 270 women may have had their ‘lives shortened’.

The Daily Mirror has reported that health officials from at least three NHS trusts raised concerns with Public Health England in 2017.

Mr Twigg’s request to Halton CCG was sent on behalf of himself and Weaver Vale Labour MP Mike Amesbury, whose constituency contains parts of east Runcorn and Daresbury served by Halton CCG.

He has asked the CCG to provide details of the number of women affected in Halton, when the CCG became aware of the errors, what action it took then and what it has done to notify the women concerned and how many may have died as a result of cancer being missed because screening did not taking place.

Public Health England has now invited 309,000 women aged between 70 and 79 years for catch-up screening.

Halton MP Mr Twigg has also raised the matter in Parliament, asking the Health Secretary when he or another minister last asked officials for comment on whether the system was effective, and in particular when was the last time they asked before January.

Mr Hunt said ministers were informed of the matter in March but that he would ‘get back to the hon. Gentleman with a detailed answer’.

A Halton CCG spokesman told the Weekly News that the group had asked Public Health England for the details requested by Mr Twigg.

The breast screening scandal has provoked alarm among charities.

Baroness Delyth Morgan, Breast Cancer Now chief executive, called the blunder a ‘massive systemic failure’.

And Lynda Thomas, Macmillan Cancer Support chief executive, said: “It’s deeply shocking so many women have been missed from breast cancer screening over a number of years.

“This will undoubtedly create a great deal of concern and anxiety for the women affected.”