NHS aims to get five million who miss cancer checks to come for screening

The NHS hopes to get five million more people to come forward for cancer screening who are eligible for checks each year but do not have them.

The House of Lords heard that only 10 million people of the 15 million who qualify for annual examinations each year attend appointments.

Health minister Baroness Merron said that NHS England has developed a national uptake improvement plan, which hopes expanded screening, improved IT systems and communications will help reach those who have not attended appointments.

Really importantly, uptake for women who are on their first invite is really worrying. Screening is a really simple way of stopping women of dying from breast cancer, and it is not rocket science

Labour peer Baroness Morgan of Drefelin, a former chief executive of the Breast Cancer Now charity, said numbers coming forward for breast screening have been in decline for 10 years, and have been below 70% across NHS England since 2019/20.

The question session about breast cancer screening heard that 86% of women who survive breast cancer go on to live for another five years.

Lady Morgan told peers: “Really importantly, uptake for women who are on their first invite is really worrying. Screening is a really simple way of stopping women from dying from breast cancer, and it is not rocket science.”

In response, Lady Merron said: “We will continue to seek to drive up rates of breast cancer screening.”

She added: “I have been interested to see across all the screening programmes, something like 15 million people are invited for screening, but 10 million take it up. That still leaves five million people for us to be working on.

“It’s important to note that even with the 10 million take-up on screening, that is saving a considerable amount of lives.

“We do need to continue to drive up the take-up on screening across various cancers, not just breast cancer, but other programmes in terms of cervical, bowel and there will be a lung cancer screening program as well.”

It is the case that we do follow the scientific advice, and the advice is that going beyond that age, as a matter of course, does not give the rewards that we would hope. I can reassure any woman (over the age of 70) that she will be seen if she has concerns

Conservative peer Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist called for the Government to reinstate breast cancer screening for women after the age of 70.

Women are no longer automatically invited to be checked every year, because of concerns about “overdiagnosis”. Instead, they are invited for appointments every three years.

Lady Bloomfield said: “Can the Government look again at the ceasing of breast cancer screening after the age of 70? When the incidents of disease occurring is still high, and indeed would be high if it was not for the success of earlier breast cancer screening. This cohort of women should not be ignored.”

Lady Merron said: “If a woman is in the age group to which (Lady Bloomfield) refers to and has concerns, she may request follow-up and investigation.

“It is the case that we do follow the scientific advice, and the advice is that going beyond that age, as a matter of course, does not give the rewards that we would hope. I can reassure any woman in that age group that she will be seen if she has concerns.”