Breast cancer checks in Scotland are running months behind schedule and reopening the service to women over 70 would add to the delays, Scotland’s health secretary has warned.
Humza Yousaf told MSPs that allowing older women back into the breast cancer screening programme potentially increased the risk to younger women who were already waiting “too long” between check-ups. He admitted officials were weighing up whether the benefit of allowing older women into the programme was worth the risk.
His comments came as figures were published showing the longest waiting times for cancer treatment in Scotland since records began.
Women aged 50-70 should be offered mammograms every three years by the NHS to look for early signs of breast cancer. Before the pandemic concerned patients over the age of 70 could also ask to have the check-ups. Scotland has refused to reinstate this self-referral service for older women even though England allowed those aged 71-plus access again in November 2020.
Sue Webber, MSP and public health spokeswoman for the Scottish Conservatives, asked Yousaf at the health, social care and sport committee how she could help a woman in her seventies who had been refused screening even though she was at increased risk of breast cancer because of medication she is taking.
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Yousaf said he believed patients aged 50-70 were waiting 39 months between mammograms but added he needed to confirm the figures. “If we were to introduce the self-referral route for those that are 71-plus then the estimate is that that would add an additional four months on to the gap between screening cycles,” he said.
Data published on the Scottish parliament website at the end of last month says women in the east of Scotland experience a gap of 46 months between checks and the average interval across Scotland is 41 weeks. Webber said: “It’s Humza Yousaf’s duty . . . to ensure there is enough capacity in the system to provide breast screening for all.”
The Scottish government said: “Self-referrals for those over 71 have been paused as the impacts of Covid continue to limit capacity . . . The screening programme is now exploring options with a goal of restarting the self-referral route for older women over 71 in a careful, phased way by September 2022.”
Macmillan Cancer Support expressed concern that the latest Public Health Scotland figures show rising delays for cancer treatment. Data published yesterday revealed 79 per cent start treatment within 62 days of being urgently referred to hospital — a new low.
Janice Preston, of the charity, said: “More people are now facing delays.”
