Health: Breast Cancer

Lord Hughes of Woodside Excerpts

Monday 3rd October 2011 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, my noble friend is right that we have historically targeted women in a certain age group for breast cancer screening. We are looking to see whether that age group should be widened but it is generally true to say that screening is more cost-effective in older women. It has certainly been the case that the breast screening programme over the past number of years has increased the detection of cancer and saved an estimated 1,400 lives a year.

[Lord Hughes of Woodside]

My Lords, can the Minister confirm that there is something in the NHS called the two-week procedure whereby GPs can refer patients to a hospital and they are therefore seen by that hospital within those two weeks? If I am right in that, will that be more widely used and advertised so that patients know what they can ask of their GP?

[Earl Howe]

The noble Lord is right. We are not changing that target, which we believe is clinically well founded. It is largely up to GPs to make sure that, if cancer is suspected, that referral pathway should be followed.