Breast screening

NHS Breast Screening Programme

What is breast screening?

• Breast screening or ‘breast imaging’ can show the presence of tumours at an early stage, when they are too small for you or your doctor to feel or to see.
• Breast screening (mammography) is a method of imaging each breast using an X-ray process.
• Each mammogram takes a few minutes and involves a tiny dose of radiation, so the risk to your health is very small.
• Your visit to the breast screening mobile unit should take about half an hour.
• If an abnormality is suspected or identified, women will be asked to attend the hospital unit for assessment.
• Women who are found to have abnormalities are offered help and advice to decide upon treatment, if necessary.

Why do I need breast screening?

One-in-nine women will develop breast cancer at some time in their life. Breast screening can help to find small changes in the breast tissue before there are any other signs or symptoms. Many of these changes will be found to be benign (normal), but if abnormal changes (malignant) are found at an early stage, there is a good chance of a successful programme of treatment and recovery.

Despite the fact that screening is free on the NHS - and that screening can save your life - one in five women in Norfolk are still failing to respond to invitations for screening. NHS Norfolk's Screening Programmes Lead, Fiona Kelly, said: “We rely on women responding to invitations to be screened, so I cannot emphasise strongly enough how important it is that women attend breast screening units when they are invited."
 

Where is breast screening carried out?

There are three hospitals in Norfolk where breast screening is carried out and five more outside the county to which some women may be invited, depending on where they live.

There is also a fleet of six mobile screening units operated by the hospitals. These operate regularly from 39 sites across the NHS Norfolk area such as supermarket car parks or village halls.

Each unit is fully equipped and staffed, with private changing areas, to make screening a comfortable and efficient experience for the women who rely on it.

What does the NHS Breast Screening Programme do?

The national breast screening programme has been extended to include, for the first time, women from the age of 47 and up to the age of 73.

Until December 31 2010, only women aged between 50 and 70 were routinely invited for breast screening, with women over 70 able to refer themselves.

In practical terms, in Norfolk women have received their first invitation for breast screening in the year in which they become 51. Now they will enter the programme between the ages of 47 and 50 and will receive a first invitation by the age of 50.