Health screening and mortality rates (FOI)

Request

A

How many women are eligible for the routine breast screening programme currently? 

B

How many women are currently registered for a routine screening? 

C

When was the decision made to make it an opt-in register and how has it been advertised or shared with the public?

D

How many women have had a routine screening in the last five years?

E

What is the current waiting list? 

F

How many men are eligible for a prostate examination currently? 

G

Does that have a similar opt-in system and if so how many men are registered?

H

How many men have had a routine screening in the last five years? 

I

What is the current waiting list? 

J

What are the latest figures for the number of cases of breast and prostate cancer in Jersey over the past five years? 

K

How many people have died from breast cancer and prostate cancer in the same year period?

Response

A

Women aged 50 to 69 years are offered a routine breast screening appointment every two years. Records show that 14,462 people met this eligibility criteria in March 2021, according to population data from the most recent census on 21 March 2021: 

Census Bulletin 1.pdf (gov.je) 

Official population projections for 2022 are not available at this time. These are due to be published by Statistics Jersey at the end of 2023.  

Women over 70 years of age are not routinely called for breast screening, however they can continue to have screening every two years until they reach 75 years of age.

Anyone over 75 years of age who wishes to continue with screening should speak with their GP, who can make a referral, if appropriate.

B

Records show 15,152 people are on the active list for breast screening.

C

Breast screening has been an opt-in programme since inception in 1990.

D

The central record system for breast screening shows the number of studies, rather than the number of unique patients undergoing screening.

23,781 studies have been undertaken in the last five years. Participants in the breast screening programme may have attended on multiple occasions in this period, depending on the individual’s screening cycle and assessed clinical risk.

Clinics were paused due to Covid-19, with reduced clinic availability for a time following reinstatement of the service in-line with infection control requirements.

E

Participants who register are currently being scheduled an appointment within a month.

F to I

There is no prostate cancer screening programme. Patients can attend their GP for a Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test. If the PSA result is raised, the patient is referred to the Urology department of Health and Community Services for further investigations, as required.

Waiting time for a prostate MRI is two weeks. Results are then discussed at the Multi-disciplinary Team (MDT) meeting and a biopsy arranged, if suggested. Waits for biopsy can be up to four weeks.

J

Information relating to cancer diagnosis in Jersey is analysed by Public Health England through the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service on behalf of the Channel Islands. The latest report from Public Health England can be found here: 

Channel Islands Cancer Registration Report (gov.je) 

Cancer diagnosis data for the period 2018 to 2022 will be included in future iterations of this report. 

Providing data from the Jersey health systems would require data extraction, matching and analysis from the following systems:

• Cancer Outcomes and Services dataset (COSD) from the cancer management MDT system 
• Pathology (including information about staging and metastasis)
• Patient Administration System (PAS)
• Death certificates or notices.

Compilation of this data, without information from UK data systems related to Jersey domiciled residents, will not give a complete picture of cancer diagnosis in Jersey residents. Data is supplied through the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service in order to provide a complete data set of cancer diagnoses. 

As data would need to be extracted from various sources and manipulated to answer this request, aside from taking more than the prescribed 12.5 hour time cost limits, the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 does not require a Scheduled Public Authority to manipulate data in order to provide a response. Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied. 

K

Due to the delays which can sometimes occur with registration of deaths, it is standard for mortality data to be reported in arrears. Data may be affected upon conclusion of any inquests that remain open at the time of reporting. Figures for deaths in 2022 are currently unavailable, as the coded data for the calendar year is incomplete.

Deaths occurring during the calendar year 2022 will be reported on in 2023, as per the Public Health Intelligence publication schedule linked below: 

Public Health Intelligence publication release schedule (gov.je)

Figures for data held on deaths from 2017 to 2022 have been provided in the table below, as the most recent 5-year data available. The figures provided include deaths occurring in Jersey, plus deaths that occurred overseas to Jersey residents where the body was repatriated to Jersey.

Mortality data is taken from the information collected at death registration. All of the conditions documented on the death certificate are coded using the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision (ICD-10). From all of these, a cause of death is determined and codes are attributed for this and any underlying contributing causes, in-line with ICD-10 coding standards.

The following ICD-10 categories were included for this analysis of deaths:

• C50: Malignant neoplasm of breast
• C61: Malignant neoplasm of prostate

Please note it is standard practice to report mortality counts rounded to the nearest 10. Resultantly, discrepancies may be seen between the figures reported in the table and the figures published in other publications by the Public Health Intelligence team. Figures may also be amended in time when further information is obtained from death inquests.

Article applied

Article 16 - A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.