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Cash crisis is 'creating postcode lottery for breast scans'
Sophie Goodchild and Ruth Bloomfield14.08.09
Missed targets on breast cancer screening are putting women's lives at risk, a leading doctor said today.
Professor Kefah Mokbel, a London cancer specialist, warned that a worsening NHS cash crisis was to blame for patients facing delays.
Women between 50 and 70 should be checked for breast cancer every three years under a government pledge.
But new figures published today reveal patients across London face a postcode lottery over breast X-rays, with some cancer units missing the 36-month target.
The worst-performing screening units are seeing just one in five patients on average within the recommended timeframe.
In north London, only one in five eligible women gets a breast X-ray every three years, the second-worst level in the country, behind Brighton.
The City and east London also lag behind, at just over 75 per cent.
Yet units in west London see 98 per cent of women within 36 months and in south-east London 92 per cent are screened every three years.
Professor Mokbel, from St George's Hospital in Tooting, believes even three years is too long. Patients should be checked more regularly, he said.
The consultant breast surgeon said: “There has not been any significant improvement (in waiting times) and this is down to limited resources. It is going to get worse over the next year or so because of cuts in the budget. Even a three-year interval remains very long.
Women should really be seen every 12-18 months. The programme saves lives, but we would save even more lives if we reduced the interval.”
His comments come as the NHS faces a budget freeze this year and the prospect of cuts after the next election, with the Tories suggesting a reduction in the payments hospitals get for carrying out medical procedures.
Reader views (2)
Altogether now 'we luv de NHS innit' Twittering eeejuts all.
Funny how this kind of story appears with utter regularity yet nobody dare suggest that the NHS is flawed.
IMO it's VERY poor VFM and needs radical surgery The NHS kills thousands every year via HAI - far more than die on the roads. But people don't care about that do they. Not when there's cheap political points to be scored.
I suspect 'call me Dave' isn't up to fixing it. I know Gordon (I went private for my teeth - hypocrite!) definitely isn't up to fixing it.
Who does that actually leave? answer - nobody.
Time to take politics out of the NHS and inject common sense imo. Never happen though. Too much of a sacred cow.
- Ethan, UK - Dan Hannan is right!
Tony Blair, 1997: "We have 24 houyrs to save the NHS" Well, New labour have now had 12 years and it's still in a mess. What does it say about the NHS when Great Ormond Street Hospital is reduced to begging for money with advertisements on Sky News?
- Paul, London
