Britain’s cancer programme ‘lagging behind other countries’

CANCER screening programmes in Britain are lagging behind other countries as it is unclear who is in charge, a review found.

Former cancer tsar Sir Mike Richards was asked to examine the system after a series of scandals and a decline in uptake of checks for breast, bowel and cervical cancers.

He highlighted failings in the programmes, saying IT is so poor it is “difficult, if not impossible” to monitor their safety. His interim report calls for radical changes to boost the uptake of tests by making them more convenient, including online booking, out-of-hours appointments and checks near work.

But Sir Mike suggested the failings are more fundamental, warning that a “long-term slow decline” in uptake of screening went unchecked as there is no clarity on which body is responsible.

He said many aspects of the current systems are “no longer fit for purpose”.

Uptake of smear tests is the lowest in 21 years – and for mammograms, the lowest for a decade. In both cases, around one in three eligible women miss out on checks. The national review follows an inquiry that found almost half a million women were made to endure needless anxiety about cancer blunders, which affected around 5,000.

Last year, Jeremy Hunt, the then health secretary, told the Commons a mistake by the national cancer programme meant around 450,000 women had missed out on checks, but it took months for officials to establish that the accurate figure was likely to be far lower. Other blunders saw nearly 50,000 people miss results and screening reminders for cervical cancer.

Sir Mike said confusion about who is even responsible for the systems was fuelling significant delays in making improvements. “Many people have asked me, ‘Who is in charge of cancer screening?’ The answer is not obvious,” he said, describing “suboptimal” communication between committees of Public Health England and NHS England leading to duplication and confusion.

“This includes the key issue of delays in implementation where the UK is lagging behind other countries when it comes to how quickly we mobilise ourselves to implement advances in screening programmes,” he added.

Sir Mike will recommend changes to clarify responsibility for programmes in his final report later this year. His review found long delays in introducing promised changes. A new system of bowel checks, promised in 2011, had been offered to less than half of those eligible by September last year.

In 2015, the Government promised a better system of cervical screening, but it has yet to be introduced. Sir Mike raised a particular worry about poor uptake of cervical and breast cancer checks. “This decline can be halted and should be reversed,” he said.