Monitoring radiographic data within the West Midlands National Health Service Breast Screening Programme

Monitoring Technical Recall/Technical Repeat is important to ensure that the films produced by practitioners working within breast screening are of a consistently high quality. The National Health Service Breast Screening Programme set the standard that at least 97% of mammograms are adequate for radiological interpretation and ≤3% of examinations are repeated for technical reasons.

The West Midlands Breast Screening QA Reference Centre has developed a tool for Technical Recall/Technical Repeat data to be collected quickly and accurately. For the period 1 April 2002–31 March 2003, 2974 (2%) women had a repeat screen. Information is collected on the location of the original screen (mobile or static) and the cause of the repeat. Consistently over time the most common reason for a retake being necessary was inadequate radiographer positioning.

It is important to continually monitor radiographic data as changes may reveal equipment problems or indicate training needs, particularly with the introduction of new staff and assistant practitioners to facilitate programme expansion.

Table 1