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NSD >> Services >> Screening >> Breast Screening

Breast Screening

The Scottish Breast Screening Programme (SBSP) is divided into 6 areas, North East, North, South West, West, East and South East Scotland. The 6 screening centres are based in Aberdeen, Inverness, Irvine, Glasgow, Dundee and Edinburgh. Each centre has a static base and provides the screening service to the outlying areas by mobile units.

Breast cancer is more common in women aged over 50 and the SBSP invites women aged between 50 and 70 years old for screening every three years. Women aged 71 and over are encouraged to attend through self referral to their local screening centres. During 2009/10 (statistics one year in arrears) the SBSP screened just under 173,000 women (including those who self referred) and detected just under 1,400 cancers (invasive and non invasive), these women were referred on for treatment.

Performance Standards, at 31st March 2010:

  • Looking at three year performance standard attendance figures, uptake remains similar to last year, at approximately 75%.
  • All NHS Boards continued to exceed the minimum performance attendance standard of > 70% of women invited during the previous three years.
  • In 2009-10, all NHS Breast Screening Programme Minimum Performance Standards were met.

The programme has undergone significant developments over the years, however, there has never been a full national review of the service. It is now necessary to undertake a formal review of the way the service is delivered to ensure that it can adapt to meet future challenges, and remain a sustainable high quality and equitable breast screening service for women aged 50 to 70 resident in Scotland, and in the most clinically and cost effective way.

The review will be conducted by National Services Division and aims to ensure the screening programme remains effective and sustainable given the need to:

  • Replace older analogue screening equipment with digital technology which will require a change in working practices
  • Recruit and retain sufficient, suitably trained staff for the service in the future
  • Continue to meet the new cancer waiting times targets of 62 days from referral to treatment.

We are keen to hear your views on how the breast screening service should be shaped in the future. Questionnaires for users and staff working within the service have been developed and will be available from 1 August to 28 August 2011 for completion. If you would like to contribute please access the relevant survey from the following page Breast Screening Review.

Further information regarding the review can be found on the Breast Screening Review web page.

For useful information and links to other Breast Screening organisations, please click the Breast Screening information or the link to Breast Screening - other sources of information.

Contact details for the screening centres are available on the Scottish Breast Screening Centres page.

National Services Division contacts:

To contact members of NSD staff, please visit our staff contacts page.

Karen Butler, Programme Manager
Marie Richmond, Assistant Programme Manager
Jenny Dowswell, Programme Support Officer