7 September 2018

SaTH is expecting to complete the catch-up NHS breast screening sessions for women in Shropshire one month ahead of schedule.

The catch-up sessions are for women, aged between 70 and 79, who were identified earlier this year as not receiving their invitation from the NHS breast screening programme, due to the national IT problem with the breast screening invitation system.

Appointments in Shropshire started in mid-May, and the programme was expected to take six months to complete.

SaTH put in place extra capacity in addition to the normal screening programme, which was not affected.

Nigel Lee, Chief Operating Officer at SaTH, said that thanks to the efforts of staff, screening was running three to four weeks ahead of schedule.

He said that all catch-up sessions were expected to be completed by the end of September, rather than the end of October.

Mr Lee said: “Our staff have worked very hard to ensure that all those women who wanted to have a catch-up breast screening session were able to have it as quickly as possible. Many volunteered to work extra shifts to enable this, and I would like to thank them all for their hard work and their commitment.”