Breast Cancer Screening

Andrew Murrison Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd May 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

We are indeed talking to the charities operating in this sector about how we can best provide all kinds of support, including mental health support, as well as clinical guidance. We often talk in the House about the challenges facing the NHS, but it is important to note that breast cancer is an area in which survival rates have been improving, and have actually been catching up with those in other European countries. The NHS deserves great credit for that, despite today’s very serious failing.

[Dr Andrew Murrison (South West Wiltshire) (Con)]

I commend my right hon. Friend for the way in which he brought this very bad news to the House, and the hon. Member for Leicester South (Jonathan Ashworth) for the way in which he responded to it.

As my right hon. Friend will know, breast cancer is not just about survival nowadays; it is also about quality of life after treatment. Will his contact with those who have been affected extend to those who have been treated, but who may have had to be treated in a more radical way than might have been the case had their cancers been picked up earlier?

[Mr Hunt]

Absolutely. As my hon. Friend will know from his own medical background, it is impossible to know that until there is a detailed case note review, but we will certainly undertake that review for anyone who thinks they may have been affected.