Women in the Otley area are to benefit from improved cancer screening services as a routine breast screening service opens at Wharfedale Hospital in approximately October 2010.
Breast screening helps to detect breast cancer at a very early stage and saves thousands of lives every year in the UK. It involves a quick procedure, called mammography, which uses X-rays to see inside the breasts and spot any changes in breast tissue that may be a sign of cancer.
At the moment, local women are generally invited to have their routine screening at a mobile unit which is parked in the health centre car park. From around October 2010, the Wharfedale Hospital service – which currently provides a service for women who have breast symptoms - will expand, to replace the mobile unit and provide routine breast screening for women aged 47 to 73. Around 4,000 women will be invited to use the new service each year.
The new service will bring a number of benefits including better disabled access, greater privacy and dignity for patients and more comfortable surroundings. Relatives will also benefit from improved waiting areas.
The changes are being made as part of a wider development of breast screening services for Leeds and Wakefield. The changes are being made for two main reasons:
• To screen more women. By 2012 the age range of women being invited to have routine breast screening will be extended to include women between the ages of 47 and 73 (the current range is 50 to 70). The Cancer Reform Strategy also states that routine breast screening will be offered to women outside of these ages who have a family history of breast cancer.
• To improve quality by bringing in new equipment. Digital equipment will replace the film-based machines currently used for breast screening. Using this digital technology, experts will be able to share images with one another easily and more quickly so they can discuss more difficult cases. The equipment also helps to improve the quality of the images and makes the mammograms easier to assess by professionals.
Digital equipment will also be introduced on the mobile breast screening units. This means that all women, regardless of where they have their test, will be screened using the latest digital technology.
A consultation is currently underway to seek the views of patients, service users and members of the public on the development of breast screening services.
Brian Godfrey, Divisional Director for Diagnostics and Therapeutics at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which provides breast screening services for Leeds and Wakefield, said: “As part of the development of breast services we have been working with our partners at NHS Leeds and NHS Wakefield in developing these plans which are now ready to go forward to see what the public think. We hope as many service users as possible will share their views during this consultation.”
Anyone in Leeds can take part in the consultation. To find out more about the Leeds breast screening services consultation visit the NHS Leeds website at www.nhsleeds.nhs.uk NHS Wakefield District is also running a similar consultation for breast screening services in their area. Details of this consultation can be found on their website at www.wakefielddistrict.nhs.uk
The organisation is particularly keen to hear from women who use the breast screening service, along with their friends, relatives and carers.
Notes
At the moment, the breast screening service in Leeds is provided by two machines based at St James’s Hospital and four mobile units which are parked in local communities in places such as supermarket car parks and health centres. By 2012, NHS Leeds aims to have increased the number of machines at “static” sites from two machines to four, and reduced the number of mobile units to two.
To do this, routine breast screening is being introduced at Wharfedale Hospital in Otley which currently has a screening service only for people who have symptoms. In addition, NHS Leeds is asking for people’s views on where to put a fourth machine; either at St James’s University Hospital (along with the two existing machines) or at Wortley Beck Health Centre in inner west Leeds.
