Delays over cancer screening in Northern Ireland

Delays over cancer screening in Northern Ireland

Up to 100 women in Northern Ireland potentially have breast cancer and do not know it, a senior doctor has said.

The women are caught up in a backlog for the government's screening programme.
Women between 50 and 64 are supposed to have a routine NHS mammogram every three years. However, under the Freedom of Information Act, the BBC has learned there are 15,500 women who have been waiting longer than that.

For women in the Southern area - there is no waiting list at all and in the west, 479 people have waited about four months longer than they should.

Cancer fears over screening delay (BBC News, 19 November 2007)