CANCER SURVIVAL SCANDAL

TOP DOC BLASTS NHS RECORD ON DEATH RATES

A LEADING surgeon has blasted shocking breast cancer survival rates in the UK after it emerged this week that 450,000 women were not sent invites for mammograms.

Professor Kefah Mokbel said: “We have some of the worst survival and death rates for breast cancer in the Western world.

“It boils down to how often you screen women. We do not take breast screening in this country as seriously as other countries.” A study published in the medical journal Lancet ranks the UK 26th out of 63 countries, with a five-year survival rate of 85.6 per cent.

The former NHS breast surgeon, of Brunel University, London, said other countries had better rates because they screened every year or two, rather than every three years like Britain.

This week it was revealed that 450,000 women aged 68 to 71 had failed to get invitations since 2009 due to an IT error.

Computer modelling suggested between 135 and 270 may have had their lives shortened as a result.

Prof Mokbel added: “This is not the first scandal we have had with the breast screening service. There have been examples of films not being properly read or not being read at all. “You get the impression underfunded and resourced. “The fact that some women have been missed comes as no surprise to me. I regularly see women in my private practice who say they are registered with an NHS GP but have never received an NHS letter inviting them for breast screening.” it is