Cumbria breast cancer screening restarts

Some of those affected were tested at Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle

Breast cancer screening is to restart in north Cumbria after the service was halted when 16 women with the disease were given the all-clear.

North Cumbria University Hospitals Trust suspended routine mammograms in July and carried out an investigation.

It found that radiologists did not carry out enough needle biopsy tests and experts from Newcastle were drafted in to overhaul the service.

Screening will resume in January and appointment letters are being sent out.

Staff from Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have been working with the North Cumbria Hospitals Trust to re-establish the service at Carlisle's Cumberland Infirmary and in Whitehaven.

North Cumbria University Hospitals Trust's chief executive, Carole Heatley, said: "Our trust fully understands and appreciates the distress and anxiety this issue will have caused and once again apologises to all concerned.

"We are now in a position to work with breast experts from Newcastle who will be re-establishing the screening programme for women in north Cumbria in partnership with us."