North East Scotland Breast Screening Programme Orkney 2024
Nearly 3200 Orkney women between the ages of 50-70 years will be receiving their invitations, over the next few months, to attend for breast screening when the Mobile Unit returns to Orkney on 29th April 2024. This year there will be 2 units for routine screening mammograms and both will be based at The Balfour Hospital main car park until 4th July 2024.
The Breast Screening Service visits Orkney every three years and Orkney remains one of the highest screening uptakes in the country. On our last visit in 2021, 82% of eligible women attended for screening which was a tremendous response.
Mrs Sarah Philip, Breast Services Manager for the North East of Scotland Breast Screening Service, is encouraging all those invited to attend. “Women between the ages of 50 and 70 years who are registered with a GP Practice will receive an invitation for screening.
The post COVID-19 pandemic restrictions have been lifted and, while women 71 years and over will not automatically be sent an invitation, they can again make their own appointment by phoning us in Aberdeen.
Orkney has an impressive record with breast screening uptake and I would urge all eligible Orkney women to continue to take advantage of this important screening programme as they have done in the past. Women attending for screening will have two views taken of each breast. A small percentage of women who require further assessment will subsequently be recalled to the Centre in Aberdeen for review.
It is really important that women continue to come for screening each time we visit Orkney so that we can ensure there have been no changes in the three years since we were last here. If any woman missed or failed to attend three years ago it is still important to come along for screening this time.”
Invitation letters will be sent out approximately 4-5 weeks prior to the screening appointment date.
Dr Louise Wilson, Director of Public Health, NHS Orkney, encouraged all women to attend their appointment. “The risk of developing breast cancer increases as you get older and the best way of screening for breast cancer is by having regular mammograms as you may not be able to see or feel any early changes in the breast tissue. Detecting cancer early provides the best chance of successful treatment. We can be confident that we can improve survival outcomes for people with cancer by detecting it earlier. If you have cancer then the earlier it is treated the better and screening is a way of detecting cancer at an early stage.”