Health officials were warned of errors in the breast cancer screening programme more than a year ago but failed to act, it emerged last night.
Public Health England conceded that it had been made aware of problems with the scheme as far back as March 2017.
The body was alerted by two health trusts which reported that letters were not going out to some women aged 68-71. PHE instructed the private firm running the programme’s IT system to look into the matter – but the company said it was only a ‘local issue’. As a result, PHE decided not to pursue it.
The admission came a day after the body insisted it had become aware of the errors in January this year.
Widower George Baczkowski, whose wife Ann (pictured together) died from breast cancer after not being invited to checks, said: ‘I don’t blame anyone for her death but I do want answers and accountability’
The NHS’s breast cancer screening is meant to be offered to all women aged 50-70, every three years. But on Wednesday, Jeremy Hunt revealed up to 450,000 women had not been invited to the checks between 2009 and 2018
Helen Jarvis, 72, who had a mastectomy after missed scans meant her cancer was picked up late, said: ‘I feel so angry on behalf of so many women. In particular those women who went on to have aggressive breast cancer and died … Somebody needs to fall on their sword’
Ministers were not told until March and the public was informed only this week. Some 450,000 women have not been invited to crucial mammograms as a result of the IT glitches – and as many as 270 women are feared to have died.
The fact PHE was warned of problems 14 months ago will raise further questions over the competency of the body and its chief executive Duncan Selbie.
Lee Towsey believes his mother, who died from breast cancer aged 70, was a victim of the scandal. He said: ‘It’s outrageous and it’s disgusting. Someone has to be held responsible for this error.’
As more details unfolded:
- It emerged that a Texan firm with an annual turnover of £400million, based in Dallas, held the contract to run the scheme’s software;
- A helpline for women and families affected had 8,000 calls in its first day;
- Lawyers warned the NHS faced a multimillion-pound compensation bill;
- Doctors warned breast cancer screening units would have to work evenings and weekends to clear the backlog;
- Health officials blamed each other and refused to accept responsibility.
The NHS’s breast cancer screening is meant to be offered to all women aged 50-70, every three years. But on Wednesday, Jeremy Hunt revealed up to 450,000 women had not been invited to the checks between 2009 and 2018. This is thought to have been caused by an IT fault which meant letters did not go out to those in the 68-71 age group.
Bereaved relatives and women who have had mastectomies are calling for the officials responsible to be held to account.
Widower George Baczkowski, whose wife Ann died from breast cancer after not being invited to checks, said: ‘I don’t blame anyone for her death but I do want answers and accountability.’ The 73-year-old of Swordeston, near Norwich, said he was asking: ‘Could she still be with us?’
Lee Towsey believes his mother Rita (pictured with husband Keith), who died from breast cancer aged 70, was a victim of the scandal. He said: ‘It’s outrageous and it’s disgusting. Someone has to be held responsible for this error’
Helen Jarvis, 72, who had a mastectomy after missed scans meant her cancer was picked up late, said: ‘I feel so angry on behalf of so many women. In particular those women who went on to have aggressive breast cancer and died … Somebody needs to fall on their sword.’
Brian Gough, whose wife Trixie died in 2015 after not receiving a scan invitation, said: ‘These things don’t just happen … Somebody somewhere along the line has made a massive error.’
Baroness Delyth Morgan, of Breast Cancer Now, said: ‘If there were cases coming to light much earlier than January this year, we have to ask the question why wasn’t there action taken sooner.’
Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt launched an inquiry to establish what went wrong and who is accountable, due to report back in six months.
A PHE spokesman yesterday confirmed it was warned of issues with the scheme 14 months ago. Two trusts in London and the Midlands expressed concerns that women aged 68-71 were not receiving letters. When asked to investigate, computer firm Hitachi Consulting reported back that it was only a ‘local issue’.
Concerns were raised again in December 2017 by academics carrying out research into extending the scheme. PHE realised it was a national problem in January and by March became aware it had affected hundreds of thousands.
‘Mum is dead and someone must pay’: Grieving son hits out at ‘disgusting’ breast scan blunders as other families tell of their heartache
Lee Towsey believes his mother (pictured together) is a victim of the ‘outrageous and disgusting’ screening scandal
Lee Towsey believes his mother is a victim of the ‘outrageous and disgusting’ screening scandal.
Rita Towsey, who died at the age of 70, was diagnosed with stage three cancer after finding a lump in her breast and going to her doctor.
Her son said Mrs Towsey had not been called for a screening for several years before her diagnosis – which could potentially have detected the cancer earlier.
He said: ‘My mum is dead, I can’t bring her back now, but what I do want is for someone to take responsibility for this. It’s outrageous and it’s disgusting. Someone has to be held responsible for this error. I know my mother and I know she would have gone along if she had been invited for a scan. But she just did not receive one.’
Mr Towsey, 52, added: ‘The doctors told her at the time that if she had come in sooner they would have been able to handle it better. She would have had a better chance.’
Mr Towsey, an events manager from Brighton, said that when he saw news of the scandal this week, he quickly realised his mother was a victim. He added: ‘It was only when she found the lump that she finally had the scan.
‘The last time we knew of her having a scan was many years ago. How did no one notice that women of a certain age across the country were not being screened?’
Mr Towsey says his mother should have been contacted, particularly because her records would have shown that she had a hysterectomy after suffering from cervical cancer in her 30s.
Rowena Herniman says she never received a letter for routine screening, and was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016
Helen Jarvis (left) was diagnosed with breast cancer this year after her GP noticed she had not been screened for four years. Ann Baczkowski died in 2014, two years after being diagnosed with stage two breast cancer. She had not had a mammogram for several years (right)
He said: ‘She had cancer before so she was at risk. She had scans for her breast at the time and I remember her telling me about it. But she was not called for her routine checks in her later life.’ Mr Towsey has tried contacting the new NHS helpline set up to assist those affected, but said he found it was ‘not fit for purpose’.
Retired domestic assistant Mrs Towsey, who lived in Deal, Kent, found a lump in her breast in 2010. She passed away two years later, leaving behind her husband of 50 years Keith, two children and five grandchildren.
Mr Towsey, a retired caretaker, died shortly after from what his son described as a ‘broken heart’.
‘Her instinct said something was wrong’
Ann Baczkowski died in 2014, just two years after being diagnosed with stage two breast cancer. She had not had a mammogram for several years and her family suspect she may have been overlooked because of the glitch.
As soon as her husband George, 73, heard the news that hundreds of women had been affected by the NHS error, he realised his wife was probably one of them.
‘She fitted the right age and the right profile to be among those they now say died needlessly,’ the retired airline pilot said. ‘She was a clever woman and her instinct told her something was not right.
‘She asked her doctor for a scan but he insisted that she did not need one. But two years later, when her condition worsened, she went back – and this time was sent straight to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital for a scan.
‘She had a mastectomy but by then the cancer had spread to her shoulder and lymph gland.’
Polish-born Mr Baczkowski, speaking at his home in Swardeston, near Norwich, said: ‘I don’t blame anyone for her death but I do want answers and accountability… it was at a time of austerity when cuts were being made to things like the health service.’
Daughter Helen, a conservationist, told the BBC: ‘My mum was 70 in 2010. She was diagnosed in 2012 and then died in 2014.
‘At the time she was diagnosed, both my father and I remember having conversations with her where she said, “Do you know what, I haven’t been called for screening for some time”.’
She added: ‘I think we will have to accept that we’ll never know. I guess at the end of the day, the important thing now is to help those women who are still alive who need screening.’
‘I’m so angry on behalf of so many women’
Helen Jarvis was diagnosed with breast cancer this year after her GP noticed she had not been screened for four years.
The 72-year-old has had to undergo two three-hour operations in successive days because the delay had allowed her tumour to grow out of control.
Mrs Jarvis, of Newton Pagnell, Milton Keynes, should have been screened last year, as she was entitled to a check-up in the year leading up to her 71st birthday.
When she contacted the dedicated NHS helpline yesterday, she was told she was among the women affected by the fiasco.
The pensioner went to see her doctor in February after discovering a lump on her left breast.
At first her GP seemed unconcerned and took action only after checking Mrs Jarvis’s records, which showed she was overdue a check-up. She was fast-tracked to Milton Keynes University Hospital and a month later scans indicated she required a mastectomy. But the tumour had become invasive, which it might not have been had she been diagnosed a year earlier.
‘I feel so angry on behalf of so many women,’ she told the Mail. ‘In particular those women who went on to have aggressive breast cancer and died. That is appalling.’
The former occupational therapist described her experience as a ‘difficult time’ after two gruelling operations in successive days in April. She is now making a slow but steady recovery.
‘I haven’t had any communication at all’
Rowena Herniman says she never received a letter for routine screening, and was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016.
The 70-year-old, from Surbiton, told the BBC: ‘I haven’t had any communication at all to ask me to go for a mammogram.
‘When I went to my GP, he said, “have you had any requests?” I said, “no, I haven’t”, and he said, “Hmm, you should have done”.
‘That might well have saved my surgery, saved the NHS money – who’s to say?’
How vital computer programme is run by an IT firm in TEXAS
A Texan firm with an annual turnover of £400million was last night at the centre of the IT disaster.
Hitachi Consulting, based in Dallas, has had a contract to run the software for the NHS’s breast cancer screening programme since 2015.
The software – the National Breast Screening System – is meant to ensure women are invited for mammograms every three years and record their results.
But in March 2017, two major health trusts in London and Birmingham warned Public Health England (PHE) of problems with the invitations.
Hitachi Consulting, based in Dallas, has had a contract to run the software for the NHS’s breast cancer screening programme since 2015
Some women aged 68-71 were not apparently receiving invitations to what should have been their last mammogram.
Officials at PHE told Hitachi to investigate, who then reported back that the problems were ‘local issues’ only. The health body did not pursue the matter any further on the assumption that it was not a large-scale, national problem.
But in December 2017 concerns were raised again – by academics who were overseeing an Oxford-led trial to extend the breast cancer screening programme.
They had discovered that letters were not going out to women aged 71-73 inviting them for mammograms as part of the trial.
Further investigations by PHE in January this year uncovered that women aged 68 to 71 were not receiving the letters either.
Between January and March, health chiefs at PHE realised that the problem had been going on for nearly a decade, and that 450,000 women had not been invited to mammograms.
It chief executive is 44-year-old Hicham Abdessamad, who was born in Casablanca, Morocco
A Hitachi Consulting spokesman insisted the company was not to blame for the error because it had been going on since 2009 – six years before it was awarded the contract.
The spokesman refused to comment as to why the firm had dismissed the initial concerns from health trusts as local problems however.
On its website, Hitachi Consulting describes itself as a ‘market leader’ in computer software and electronics.
It employs 6,500 staff in 50 countries including the UK, Japan, the US, Brazil, China and India.
It chief executive is 44-year-old Hicham Abdessamad, who was born in Casablanca, Morocco.
He lived there until he was 18, when he moved to the US to study computer engineering at the private Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts.
Mr Abdessamad then attended Dartmouth College, an Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, before completing an executive leadership program at the International Institute of Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland.
In 2015, he took over as chief executive of Hitachi Consulting Corporation – a subsidiary of the Japanese Hitachi Corporation – having previously been a vice president. He was credited with doubling annual revenues to $1.3billion after taking over.
Mr Abdessamad is also listed as the chief executive of the European and UK arms of Hitachi Consulting.
Prior to 2015 the National Breast Screening System was run by Swiss-based firm Temenos. A spokesman was not available for comment.
Yesterday Theresa May’s spokesman said the delay in telling the public was necessary to ensure ‘correct systems were in place’, including a helpline and ensuring clinics can cope with all the women coming in for checks.
He refused to say whether the Prime Minister had full confidence in PHE.
PHE has said it cannot be held fully accountable as it was set up in 2013. Before then the screening was overseen by the Department of Health and local health trusts.