Are Women Getting Their Breast Screening?

England's breast screening programme invites women aged 50–70 for a mammogram every three years. At its peak in 2014, coverage reached 76.4%.^[1] It has declined steadily since — even before the COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread programme suspension in 2020. Coverage has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels, and at 70% it sits 10 percentage points below the programme's own 80% ambition.^[1]

A significant IT failure in 2018 affected around 450,000 women who were not properly invited for their final screen.^[1] The subsequent catch-up effort temporarily improved figures, but the underlying trend continued downward. Inequalities in uptake are marked: women in the most deprived areas are substantially less likely to attend, and women from some ethnic minority groups have lower uptake than the national average.^[1] Capacity constraints — too few radiographers, an ageing fleet of mammography machines, and insufficient mobile screening units — compound the problem.

Waiting times for results have grown alongside these capacity pressures. The standard is to return results within two weeks; many trusts are now taking over four weeks.^[1] Delayed recall for further assessment adds to anxiety and, in some cases, delays diagnosis of cancers that were detected but not acted on promptly. The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan committed to expanding the radiography workforce, but training pipelines take years to fill.^[3]