Liberal Democrat MP for Manchester Withington, John Leech, has slammed the Department of Health and local healthcare trusts for failing to meet the Government's own minimum standard on breast screening in South Manchester.
Early detection of breast cancer is a key factor in successful treatment of the condition. That is why at present all women aged between 50 and 70 should receive an invite to attend a breast screening appointment every three years.
However, figures obtained by the charity "Breakthrough Breast Cancer" show that South Manchester Primary Care Trust, which covers Withington, Didsbury, Burnage and part of Chorlton, invited only 52.9% of women within the three year interval. Central Manchester Primary Care trust, which covers the rest of Chorlton and Fallowfield, only invited 62.3%.
John Leech MP has written to the secretary of State for Health and to the Chief Executives of both Trusts demanding to know what action they are going to take to rectify this failure:
"Given that screening helps to diagnose breast cancer faster and that fast diagnosis improves the success rate of treatment, it is unacceptable that the two trusts operating in South Manchester are failing so dismally to achieve the Government's minimum targets. It is imperative that action is taken to drastically improve this as quickly as possible. If funding is the issue then the Government should stump up the cash to sort the problem out."
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