Huge breast screening scandal.

[pigmcpigface]

So the Heath Secretary has just made a statement in Parliament, stating that up to 270 women may have died prematurely due to errors in a computer algorithm that governs breast screening. Reading between the lines, women weren't correctly invited to their final screening

www.theguardian.com/society/2018/may/02/jeremy-hunt-to-launch-inquiry-into-450000-missed-breast-cancer-screenings appointment.

He should resign.

It's a(nother) NHS IT mess up. NHS IT systems are not fit for purpose, but the investment to bring them up to standard is not there, and when they have invested in the past they've used it on useless outside consultants that have achieved nothing. But we know how Mr Hunt likes his outside contractors...

He'll never resign, and he won't be sacked either. He's untouchable, I can only assume he knows too much dirt they don't want to get out.

I don't understand who is actually affected as the wording in this guardian article and on the BBC is confusing.

Is it women who were 68-71 in 2009, who have fallen into that age bracket between 2009 and now or women who are currently aged 68-71?

A "women born between 19xx and 19xx" would be more helpful. And if it affects all women who were born between those dates.

I really don't see why he should resign - the error occured 3 years before he was health secretary.

What this shows is there is a lack of cross checking by GPs in this area.

When I go to my GP for regular diabetic checks he knows if I've been for annual retinopathy and podiatry checks. Did none of these women see their GP in that time?

Randomly - the reporting on this is SHIT, but from what I can gather, it sounds like they were running a trial on extending the screening age at the top (and bottom) end of the 50-70 age range across 65 screening sites. Women were picked randomly to participate, and half of those picked were screened, half weren't. The problem is that for the 450,000 who weren't, the computer cancelled the last screening letter.

Much as I loathe Jeremy Hunt, this isn't his fault. It's the national office's fault, a body that's now part of PHE. They run the computer system. They are the ones that should have been crosschecking and ensuring there was a failsafe built in, not GPs.

If I had been building the system then GPs would have been the failsafe. They are the ones in the best position to know all the facts about a patient.

Building a failsafe check into the original computer system has several problems

1. You would have to realise this could be a problem - not always easy
2. You would have to devise a method to check that wasn't subject to the same fault
3. Extra expense and time to deliver the system.

Depending on how long those steps take you could have more people affected by the delay than by the fault.

When the fault is found it will probably be setting a value in a database that the programmer didn't know was used for this purpose.

I'll be shot for saying this, I know...
Can't people take some responsibility for themselves? Easy enough to ask about screening if you're in the target age group, don't have to rely on nanny state to prompt you. Blaming govt b/c folk don't take any responsibility for managing own health risks. Ugh.

The fault has been found. They've known about it since March. I'm guessing the comms team in PHE have been working very hard indeed to orchestrate a smooth response.

In any population-based screening programme which works across a large age range, the magnitude of failures like this is huge because so many people are going to be affected -potentially millions. That's why you HAVE to have checks and balances built in.

lljkk - The trouble with that is that people just don't know what they are entitled to. Do you know what the age ranges are for breast, bowel and cervical screening - without cheating and checking? Do you think the average person does?

I can't believe so many people on here are blaming the patients and the GPs. Blame anyone but the government, ok.

I hate this government, hate so much what they are doing to the NHS. But even I have to admit it's not their fault. The programme is run centrally from Public Health England - this is their fuckup.

IIjkk I totally agree with you I was going to post that myself, I have had breast screening letters which I ignored, then my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer so I took it upon myself to ask my GP to arrange screening which he did I didn't just sit there and wait for another letter I took responsibility for my own health

pigmcpigface But that's the point, people SHOULD check what the age ranges are for various health checks and then ask for the checks if they are concerned.

So some people thought as they had reached a certain age that the checks stopped because they received no letters. Not a crime. And some paid for it with their lives.

This is not a simple issue. It is by no means the case that with breast screening you benefit rather than are damaged by having it. Even the NHS has had to admit that and put that information on the leaflets by the way.

There is also an argument that a lot of women were spared treatment they did not need and would have damaged them by not getting the leaflets.

There was a doctor on Radio 4 this morning complaining about the coverage of this. Apparently 270 is the absolute maximum taking all the worst possibilities into consideration.

He also said that what no one mentions is in that screening group 4000 would have been mis-diagnosed and subjected to unnescessary treatment.