§ Shona McIsaacTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will establish an inquiry into breast cancer screening in the South Humber Health Authority area, following the recent recall of women who have been screened. [24107]
§ Mr. BoatengProblems with the quality of a small number of mammograms taken on one machine in Humberside were identified quickly by the regional quality assurance programme. In the light of this, the trust, local health authorities and regional office took swift action in ordering a re-reading exercise of 15,000 mammograms. A number of women have now been called for another mammogram as a precautionary measure, and they should have their results within two weeks. The machine used to take the initial mammograms is being replaced and is no longer in use.
We are pleased that the regional office, the local health authorities and the trust concerned have acted quickly to minimise distress to the women involved. We are also pleased that the quality assurance system in place in Humberside did its job properly in identifying the problem promptly, enabling rapid action to be taken to put it right.
We do not plan to instigate an investigation. A review of the performance of all breast screening programmes is currently under way in response to the results of investigations into the breast screening service in Exeter and arrangements for quality assurance for the breast screening service as a whole. These reviews will be completed by the end of this month, and, where necessary, action plans to improve the quality and dependability of the service will be agreed by the end of February.