BMJ 1995;310:1003 (15 April)

Letters

British women are being offered a cheap deal

EDITOR,--It was encouraging to read Ciaran B J Woodman and colleagues' paper on breast screening1 and, in the national press, that the Department of Health is taking an interest in the results. Mammographic radiologists will recall with regret that the requirements for adequate breast screening were known to the committee that issued the recommendations for screening in 1986.2 This committee, which was heavy on the department's accountants and light on radiologists (whose recommendations were ignored), came to the extraordinary conclusion that the screening should be carried out by one radiologist, that one radiographic view should be obtained, and that the screening should be done only every three years. All the evidence from the Continent was that two initial views, read by two radiologists, every year or at most every two years were required. The excuse for not responding to the evidence was cost effectiveness, which everyone recognised as a euphemism . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Is the three year breast screening interval too long? Occurrence of interval cancers in NHS breast screening programme's north western region
Ciaran B J Woodman, Anthony G Threlfall, Caroline R M Boggis, and Pat Prior
BMJ 1995 310: 224-226. [Abstract] [Full Text]

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