–
ANP Productions | Source: ANP
–
Last year, almost half the number of women participated in the population screening that is intended to detect breast cancer as early as possible. The National Institute of Public Health reports that a total of 533,256 women participated in the preventive screening. A year earlier, there were almost 1 million. As a result, thousands of women who may have breast cancer, or a preliminary stage of the disease, are less referred to a specialist in the hospital.
–
It has been known for some time that participation in population screenings was lower than normal last year. The figures published on Thursday make it clear that screening for breast cancer in particular has collapsed. This is partly due to the corona outbreak: after the virus had reached the Netherlands, the investigations were halted for months to prevent infections. A shortage of staff compounded the problem.
Finally, last year 14,552 women were referred to the hospital for further examination. A year earlier, 22,079 women received a referral. That is a decrease of 34 percent.
Invitation
The percentage of participants who were referred was slightly higher in 2020 than in 2019. As a result, the number of referred patients has fallen slightly less than the number of participants.
The decrease is largely due to the much lower number of invitations sent out by RIVM. In addition, the percentage of women who accepted an invitation was also slightly lower: 70 percent versus 76 percent a year earlier. This may have been due to fear of corona.
The figures from the RIVM show that fewer people participated in the population screening for colorectal cancer than one year previously. There the decrease was 15 percent. Earlier this month, the figures on the population screening for cervical cancer were published. There was also a sharp decline in participation, of almost 35 percent.
— .
