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22 May 2007 : Column 1229W—continued

22 May 2007 : Column 1230W

22 May 2007 : Column 1231W

Breast screening unit	Average round length (months)	Percentage of screenings within 36 months of previous screening
North Yorkshire	34	93
Humberside	40	29
Pennine	36	67
Leeds Wakefield	37	38
Doncaster	33	94
Rotherham	35	84
Sheffield	35	71
Barnsley	35	99
Nottingham	34	90
North Nottinghamshire	35	91
Lincolnshire	40	33
South Derbyshire	36	80
North Derbyshire	36	49
Kettering	32	99
Northampton	33	99
Leicester	35	82
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire	39	52
Chelmsford and Colchester	38	60
South Essex	34	73
Epping	19	99
West Suffolk	33	98
Norfolk and Norwich	37	61
Great Yarmouth and Waveney	36	73
Peterborough	35	98
King's Lynn	36	92
Cambridge and Huntingdon	37	47
East Suffolk	34	95
South East London GCA 1	35	70
South East London GCA 2	35	69
North London EBA	35	66
South West London HWA	38	44
Barking Havering FBH	40	28
West of London ECX	36	46
Central and East London FLO	35	78
Whipps Cross FWC	42	7
Newcastle	38	50
Gateshead	35	71
North Tees	36	68
Bolton	38	54
Chester	32	99
Crewe	35	97
East Lancashire	35	86
Greater Manchester	42	7
Liverpool	36	66
Macclesfield	41	21
North Cumbria	35	97
North Lancashire	45	11
Warrington	35	96
Wigan	37	56
Wirral	35	96
Windsor	32	99
West Berkshire	35	66
Aylesbury	28	100
Milton Keynes	33	99
Wycombe	27	100
Oxford	37	74
North and Mid Hampshire	34	58
Isle of Wight	33	99
Southampton and Salisbury	36	64
Portsmouth	40	11
Worthing	40	56
Jarvis Centre, Guildford	33	92
Brighton	34	83
Kent Programme	41	30
Avon	44	18
Gloucestershire	35	84
Wiltshire	35	95
Dorset	35	98
Somerset	35	98
Cornwall	34	64
East Devon	45	8
South Devon	37	82
West Devon	40	26
City Hospital	35	97
Dudley and Wolverhampton	34	98
Hereford and Worcester	33	98
North Staffordshire	35	98
Shropshire	39	49
South Birmingham	34	98
South Staffordshire	38	71
Walsall and Sandwell	34	99
Warwickshire, Solihull and Coventry	34	96

The NHS Cancer Plan, published in 2000, stated that we would extend invitations for breast screening to women aged 65 to 70 and introduce two-view mammography at all screening rounds. Thanks to the efforts of the staff in the screening programme, these targets have now been achieved in all local breast screening units. The expansion is already showing an effect, with nearly 12,000 cancers diagnosed by the programme in 2004-05, an increase of 40 per cent. on 2001 when the expansion began.

However, the changes together represent a 40 per cent. increase in the workload of the programme. We are aware that this has had an impact on some services maintaining the three-year interval for screening and we are taking steps to bring all screening intervals back to three years.

We take the issue of the 36-month standard between screens very seriously. That is why Professor Mike Richards, the National Cancer Director, wrote to the chief executives of all 10 strategic health authorities in England on 9 February 2007 highlighting the importance of maintaining the 36-month interval.

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