Half a million women forced to endure needless anxiety over breast screening fiasco

Almost half a million women were forced to endure needless anxiety about cancer blunders which actually affected just 5,000, an independent review has found.

Earlier this year Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told the Commons that a mistake by the national cancer programme meant around 450,000 women had missed out on checks.

And the estimates suggested as many as 270 women may have been killed as a result.

Now an independent review has found that thousands of women were left anxious, and NHS services “overwhelmed”, because of “misunderstandings” which led to the announcement.

The review suggests the true number who missed out on invites for checks is likely to be just 5,000.

The damning review says health officials did not understand their own programme, criticising a lack of clarity about which women should be summoned for mammograms.

And it criticises a lack of grip from Public Health England when concerns were first raised.

The review said Mr Hunt was advised that women had not been invited to their final breast cancer screening between the ages of 70 and 71 because of a problem with the computer algorhythm.

In fact there had never been a formal instruction to raise the age of screening, the review found.

The instructions were issued by accident and do not appear to have been followed, it suggests.

And it said there remains no clarity about whether women are supposed to get their last screening within three years of the age of 70 or 71.

Since 2005, the NHS has said that all women aged 50 to 70 should be offered screening every three years.

A service specification drawn up in 2013 claimed the cut-off point was 71.

But today’s review said this advice was never agreed by officials or ministers.

If the age threshold had changed to 71 at this stage, it would mean that around 62,000 women had missed out since 2013.

In addition the review uncovered a further 5,000 separate blunders, which meant women eligible for screening were not approached.

PHE said that up to 34 women may have died as a result of missing out on invites for checks.

Lynda Thomas, chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, and chairman of the review, said: “We know that the announcement in May of a breast screening incident caused anxiety for thousands of women, sometimes unnecessarily, and it was of critical importance that their voices and concerns were heard as part of this independent review. It is completely unacceptable that there was confusion about what the breast screening programme should have been delivering. There needs to be clarity, and importantly women need clear information about what they should be able to expect.”