NHS Breast Cancer misdiagnoses

An investigation is to take place to find out why twenty-two women who attended the North Manchester General Hospital and the Trafford General were incorrectly given the all-clear for breast cancer.

Colleagues of the consultant radiologist, who has not been named but has been suspended from duty, had their suspicions raised over the quality of his work last year and around 2,500 scans were re-checked.

In all those scans the radiologist had made the wrong decision about 238 patients, and had given the all-clear to 22 patients who were later diagnosed with breast cancer.

Health managers have admitted that some of those women could die because of the delay in diagnosis, which was more than three months in some cases, and in one case was a delay of two years.

Chris Harrison, from Greater Manchester Strategic Health Authority (GMSHA), offered his apologies to the affected women and said:

"We will be commissioning a full, independent investigation into the circumstances of this incident to identify the root causes, what underlies this, what can we learn from it and how can we prevent it from happening again."

Helplines for patients involved are available on 0161 455 0059 for Trafford or 0161 656 1999 for North Manchester.