Target hit for breast screening

NHS Lanarkshire has hit its target on breast cancer screening following the pandemic.

The health board saw 71.7 per cent of available women were screened from 2018/19 to 2020/21 – it is the first time since 2011/12 to 2013/14 that the target has been hit.

However, Lanarkshire’s figure was below the national average of 73.2 per cent. The official data also suggested that NHS Lanarkshire sent half (50.5 per cent) of its invitations to women in the two most deprived quintiles.

These figures suggest that their lower uptake percentages are directly related to the high proportion of deprived women within these boards.

Kate Seymour from Macmillan Cancer Support in Scotland said: “It is good to see that the 70 per cent target has been hit, despite disruption caused by the pandemic.

“However, the statistics do still mean that more than a quarter of eligible people were not screened and that people in more deprived parts of Scotland were far less likely to be screened than others.”

According to Public Health Scotland, 1,006 cancers were picked up by breast screening in 2020-21.

However, this compares to 1,724 cancers detected by the same screening programme the previous year – a drop of 718 cases or 43.7 per cent.

The Scottish Government paused the breast cancer screening programme, as well as other cancer screening programmes, when coronavirus hit Scotland in March 2020 with screening for breast cancer resuming again in August 2020.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Uptake for routine breast screening continues to exceed the national target of 70 per cent in women aged 50-70.

“We will continue to tackle inequalities in all cancer screening programmes through a £ 2 million investment and on- going work to improve our breast screening programme.

“As a result of the pandemic, selfreferrals for women over 71 have been paused since March 2020 so that capacity can be prioritised for women between 50 and 70 for whom screening is recommended.

“We are working towards the reintroduction of the screening programme for self- referrals by September this year.”