6 December 2006
Increasing Uptake "Vote of Confidence in Service"
The national standard on patient uptake of breast screening has been met by every region for the first time, NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (NHS QIS) revealed today (Wednesday) as it published its latest report into the performance of the screening services.
The report, entitled Scottish Breast Screening Programme 2006 Follow-up , assesses Scotland s six breast screening services against a range of national standards including the management of the services, uptake rates, call / recall systems, training, monitoring and audit.
The services were last assessed by NHS QIS in 2003 when uptake rates were identified as a challenge. Among this year s key findings are:
- every region now achieves the national standard of at least 70 per cent uptake rate and four services achieve more than 75 per cent uptake,
- the service continues to achieve the highest quality of training and all existing healthcare professionals also undertake regular updates,
- double reading of mammography films where films are examined separately by two different people to increase accuracy continues to be standard practice in every service,
- reducing technical recall rates where the mammography film has to be re-taken for technical reasons remains a challenge, and
- there has been a considerable improvement in the number of centres notifying 95 percent of women of the result of their mammogram within the target of 15 working days.
Commenting on the report, NHS QIS Chairman Sir Graham Teasdale, said:
Scotland has long had a world class breast screening service and this latest assessment of its performance against the national standards once again confirms this.
What is particularly pleasing is that after all the hard work of staff to encourage women to attend, all six regional screening services are now achieving the national standard of at least 70 per cent uptake. What s more, four services are achieving more than 75 per cent uptake.
These are remarkably high uptake rates for any screening programme and that is a real vote of confidence in the services. Uptake rates were identified by our 2003 report as an issue and action has been taken. That should also give reassurance to women that the services are always looking to improve.
On a whole range of standards we see the same picture emerging; all six services meeting criterion after criterion in full. That is a testament to the dedication, professionalism and experience of the staff.
Where we do see challenges, the services are often within touching distance of meeting the standard. Among these is the aim of notifying 95 per cent of women of their results within 15 days, and even here services are close to meeting the standard.
Even with a report as positive as this, we are always looking for ways to improve and all those working in the breast screening service in Scotland have yet again shown that they are committed to providing the highest possible standards of care. Scotland can rightly be proud that its breast screening programme is delivering a world class service.
Editors Note:
- Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among women and is diagnosed in a woman in Scotland every 3 hours. Every 7 hours, a woman will die of the disease.
- It is not yet possible to prevent breast cancer, but clinical trials provided evidence that early detection and treatment leads to lower death rates, and in 1987 the UK was one of the first countries in the world to introduce a national breast screening programme.
- The Scottish Breast Screening Programme has six regional services (East, South-East, West, South-West, North, and North-East). It screens approximately 140,000 women a year.
- In total, around 3,600 breast cancers are diagnosed in Scotland every year, of which about 1,000 are diagnosed as a result of screening.
- NHS QIS has been established to lead in improving the quality of care and treatment delivered by NHSScotland. To do this it sets standards and monitors performance, and provides NHSScotland with advice, guidance and support on effective clinical practice and service improvements.
- Copies of today s report are available here
Media Contact: Colin McAllister on 07813 095930