An investigation into the number of appointment changes and queries arising as a result of extending breast screening to older women in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Objective: To compare the number of telephone queries and appointment changes requested by women aged 65-69 with women aged 50-64. Setting: Department of Health funded demonstration study of extending breast screening to women of 65-69. Methods: A survey was conducted for 1 week, each month, over the period of a year. Data were collected on the date of the query, the age of the woman, whether and why the appointment was changed, and whether the location For screening was changed, Results: The proportion of telephone queries or appointment changes was significantly more for women aged 50-64 years (p<0.001), 29.7% of women invited aged 50-64 compared with 26.5% of women invited aged 65-69. The main reason for changing the appointments was inconvenience for both age groups. Conclusions: Administrative costs associated with inviting an older woman for breast screening are no more than those for a woman aged 50-64. The number of telephone calls was high in both age groups, which has resource implications for extending the breast screening programme. The extent of appointment queries or changes needs to be considered in the funding of future population screening programmes with preallocated appointment systems.