** THIS SERVICE CHANGE HAS BEEN COMPLETED**

This is a proposed temporary service change to the County Breast Screen mobile service to Market Drayton and Bridgnorth to help us catch up screening appointments following the pandemic.  Currently our screening programme has a large backlog, and with the support of NHSI and Public Health England we are considering how to manage this and clear the delays in appointments.

The equipment on the county mobile breast screening unit urgently needs upgrading. This work is due to be carried out in the Autumn and will take approximately 8-12 weeks. The unit will have over £150,000 of new equipment and the upgrade will cost around £25,000. Once this work has been completed the upgraded Unit will then resume its three year cycle of community locations, starting at Newport in January 2023

It is proposed that temporarily our breast screening service is centralised to our main hospital sites until end of 2022. Women invited for breast screening from the Market Drayton and Bridgnorth areas will be able to go along to either Royal Shrewsbury Hospital or Princess Royal Hospital in Telford and opening hours have been extended to 7.30 in the evening and will now also be available at weekends at times which women can book as convenient for them.

Our Breast Screening programme is important to identify those women with undiagnosed breast disease and initiate a timely treatment plan, so it’s essential that we clear the backlog of appointments which were caused by delays due to COVID19.

This proposed change in service is temporary and the county mobile unit will resume its 3-year plan from January 2023 and will be at its first location at Newport.