Lunchtime cancer checks to save thousands of lives

Thousands of lives a year could be saved by providing cancer screening in supermarkets and other convenient locations so people can go in their lunch breaks, a report has suggested.

Sir Mike Richards, the NHS’s first cancer director, was asked to review national screening programmes and suggest how to improve early detection rates. The Report of The Independent Review of Adult Screening Programme in England, released yesterday, recommends that people “should be able to choose appointments at doctors’ surgeries, health centres or locations close to their work during lunchtime or other breaks rather than having to attend their GP practice”.

It adds: “Local screening services should put on extra evening and weekend appointments for breast, cervical and other cancer checks. And as people lead increasingly busy lives, local NHS areas should look at ways that they can provide appointments at locations that are easier to access.”

Sir Mike said that screening programmes save 10,000 lives per year but added: “Yet we know that they are far from realising their full potential. We need to make it as easy and convenient as possible for people to attend these important appointments.”

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: The Times, 16 October 2019