Jeremy Hunt wrong in breast cancer screening statement, inquiry says

Jeremy Hunt’s statement to the House of Commons in May that nearly 500,000 women had not been invited for breast cancer screening and that 270 may have died needlessly was based on wrong advice, an independent inquiry has found.

Thousands of women were alarmed by the statement, which set up a major recall to screen the hundreds of thousands of women aged 68 to 71 who were said to have been missed. Hunt said the problem was caused by a computer error. He later revised the number who may have died down to fewer than 75.

The inquiry, chaired by cancer experts, said Hunt’s announcement “was made following advice based on an incomplete understanding of what had happened”. The misunderstanding concerned the way the screening programme had been set up and run since the 1980s and the age at which women should have their final screening. It occurred because of a document written in 2013, when Public Health England took over control of the programme.

“The vast majority of women who were told earlier this year that they may have missed an invitation to screening were only affected under the definition of this document,” said the review.

Only 5,000 women definitely missed a screening, and those were all because of issues local to the screening programme where they lived. Under the definition of when a last screening should take place in the 2013 document it is possible to argue that 67,000 women were missed, but under the system operated prior to PHE taking over, none were missed.

PHE and NHS England are still looking into the question of possible deaths of women whose breast cancer might have been picked up by screening. They currently believe the number is “between 0 and 34”.

“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,” said Lynda Thomas, the chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Care and co-chair of the 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.”

The health minister Steve Brine said in a written statement that he “would like to apologise for the distress and suffering caused by this incident. Whilst subsequent advice provided to the then secretary of state was based on an incomplete understanding of what had happened, we welcome the review’s conclusions that the former secretary of state was correct, based on the information provided, to inform the House of the breast screening incident.

“The review makes clear that the number of women affected by this incident is significantly lower than previously estimated.”

Brine said that “the protection of the public’s health has been, and remains, the paramount consideration when responding to this incident” and expressed gratitude to the screening staff who had worked tirelessly to see the thousands of recalled women.

‘“We agree that there is an urgent need to clarify how we define the upper age limit for breast screening. We will commission the UK National Screening Committee to provide advice as soon as possible on the scientific evidence to support a precise definition of age,” he said.