MP demands answers over failings in cancer screenings
HALTON MP Derek Twigg has again spoken out about women in Halton who are affected by failures in the national breast screening programme.
Thousands of women between the ages of 68 and 71 did not receive an invitation to their final breast screening between 2009 and May this year, including 317 from Halton.
Mr Twigg confirmed that, according to Public Health England, up to 174,000 women were affected by this, and up to 130,000 who are still alive.
The number who may have had their lives shortened as a result of missing a screening is now estimated to be less than 75.
Mr Twigg said: “Whilst this figure is lower than the original estimates given in my statement, this does not lessen the devastating impact that this has had on some people’s lives.”
Last week he issued a statement updating his constituents on the action being taken to prevent this in the future.
He said: “First, in my original statement, I committed that the NHS would offer an appointment for screening to all women who missed their scheduled appointment as a result of this error, and that we would provide clear information and advice for anyone with concerns.
“I asked Public Health England to work with the NHS to contact women who missed their screening by the end of May.
“I can now confirm that Public Health England met this deadline by May 18, contacting 195,565 women registered with a GP in England.
“In addition, all the affected women known to have moved to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland were also written to by June 1, 2018.”
As of Friday, June 2, 26,774 women have now received an appointment for screening, and hundreds have already screened.
A dedicated helpline was set up on Wednesday, May 2, and is open from 8am-8pm every day to support women with concerns.
The line has so far received over 46,000 calls.
Mr Twigg also said that nobody has missed a rou- ● tine screening as a result of the NHS’ attempts to catch up on additional appointments.
He said: “I can confirm that, over the last four weeks, the NHS has put in place an additional 68,000 screening appointments nationally and is on track to ensure that all women affected who want a screen will be seen by the end of October, without impacting on other patients.
“I want to put on record my enormous gratitude to clinical staff who have worked tirelessly to offer additional appointments and to management teams who have co-ordinated and pooled their resources across different centres, or looked to other private providers, to expand capacity to manage the extra demand.
“Finally, the most important thing we can do in cases of serious error is to ensure there is a robust and thorough process to investigate, understand and learn from what went wrong.
“In my original statement, I also announced an independent review, chaired by Lynda Thomas, chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, and Professor Martin Gore, consultant medical oncologist and professor of cancer medicine at the Royal Marsden with Peter Wyman from the Care Quality Commission as the vice chair.
“I can now confirm we have agreed the terms of reference for this review, details of which are attached to this statement.
“The chairs are considering how best to involve affected women, their families and wider stakeholders and will release information on this when it is available.
“Our cancer screening programme is widely recognised as world-leading, but on this occasion a number of women have been let down.
“It is now clear that this may have resulted in significant harm for a small number of women, while thousands more have faced unnecessary distress and anxiety as they waited to hear if they have been affected.
“I would like to repeat my wholehearted and unreserved apology to the women affected and their families – and above all reassure them that we are working hard to understand what went wrong and what we need to do to stop similar incidents from happening in the future.” ●