Issue - items at meetings - Breast Screening: Update

Report of the Director of Strategy and Governance on city breast screening services (copy attached).

71.1    This item was introduced by Dr Tom Scanlon, Brighton & Hove Director of Public Health.

71.2    Dr Scanlon told members that city breast screening services had historically been of a high standard, but that problems had arisen in recent years, largely as a result of moving to a ‘two scan’ screening system, requiring greater radiographer capacity, with resultant recruitment problems. For these reasons, the interval between which women were offered scans had risen to unacceptable levels. However, scanning intervals were now back within target levels, and this progress would be maintained into the future. There is a concern that, by increasing the intervals between scans, cancers in the early stage of development might be missed. However, research has not yet identified any actual cancer missed by the temporary increase in scanning intervals.

71.3    RESOLVED – That the report be noted and an update report be requested in approximately twelve months time.