Women's experiences of mammography within the West Midlands Breast Screening Programme

The West Midlands QA Reference Centre has developed a tool to evaluate client satisfaction within breast screening. The survey, which has been running for 4 years, measures women's experiences of screening and also the time between the screen and the results.

Survey forms are supplied to breast screening services and issued annually to women during September. To achieve proportional representation, an average number of women screened per month is calculated using KC62 figures and each screening service is issued with forms for 15% of this monthly figure.

Three-year analysis shows consistency with women attending for the first time feeling more nervous. Consistently around 10% of women continue to question receiving an explanation about the examination. Experiencing pain and discomfort during mammography has increased overtime but remains within the QA Standard. A new national information leaflet was launched in November 2001. Prior to this, local services had used their own leaflet. Women's perceptions and understanding of screening from the national leaflet were similar to their understanding from the local leaflets.

Overall, women continue to be satisfied with their experiences of breast screening. Encouragingly, women are increasingly positive about repeat participation in screening and promoting others to attend, which reflects the high-quality service provided.