Hundreds miss cancer checks due to blunder

Published date22 January 2022
Publication titleExpress, The/The Express on Sunday
Letters are being urgently delivered to 242 NHS Lothian patients and staff are trying to trace 127 more who have left the area and who should have been called for mammograms

NHS Lothian said staff sending out appointment letters noticed some women had not been called at the right time.These are women who are usually offered regular screening, sometimes as often as every year.

Mammogram

Some of the at-risk women have mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes which make them vulnerable. Others have already had breast cancer.

The mistake led to a review of the 5,500 women on the board's increasedrisk breast cancer screening database.

NHS Lothian said the Scotland-wide screening programme, which invites all women aged 50-70 for mammograms every three years, was not affected.The news comes after a computer glitch which has been rectified led to 1,761 women not getting their last appointment with the nationwide service.

Katie Dee, of NHS Lothian, said the board was writing to the 242 women "to offer our sincere apologies, provide more...

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