Women in Bradford are putting themselves at risk from breast cancer by missing vital screening appointments in in creasing numbers.

Latest figures published yesterday by the Health and Social Care Information reveal only 68.8 per cent of eligible women attended breast cancer screening appointments offered to them by Pennine Breast Screening Service based in Bradford.

The uptake figures for 2010/2011 are a drop of 5.1 per cent on the previous figure of 73.9 per cent for 2009/2010. In 2000/2001 78.1 per cent of women attended screening.

The NHS Breast Screening Programme provides free breast screening every three years for all women aged 50 to 70.

The programme in the Bradford district is delivered by the Pennine Breast Screening Unit, which is part of Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and operates out of St Luke’s Hospital. It serves the population of Bradford, Airedale, Calderdale, Dewsbury and Huddersfield.

Figures for NHS Bradford and Airedale figures show that in March 2011, 33,216 women were eligible for screening and of these 24,522 attended screening – a coverage of 73.8 per cent. This is down from a coverage of 74.2 per cent in March 2010.

Nationally the figures show that nearly 1.9 million women aged 45 and over were screened for breast cancer in England in 2010-11. This compares to 1.3 million women screened in 2000-01, according to Breast Screening Programme, England, 2010-11.

The increase nationally is partly due to the expansion of the programme to include a wider range of age groups, but population growth will also have affected the numbers screened.

A spokesperson for NHS Airedale, Bradford and Leeds said: “The NHS Breast Screening Programme provides free breast screening every three years for all women in the UK aged 50 and over and is very successful in helping to bring forward detection and diagnosis. Early detection makes treatment more likely to be effective.

“In Bradford and Airedale we work closely with the Pennine Breast Screening Programme to continually review new ways to increase local uptake of screening. Work is also on-going with GP practices and in the community to raise awareness of this important screening test.”