5. Non-NHS

Thirteen people responded from private or independent healthcare providers and two people responded from charities. Due to the small number of non-NHS respondents the results in this section should be treated with care and should not necessarily be considered representative of all non-NHS breast screening services.

The non-NHS respondents all indicated that they had a nominal appointment time of at least 10 minutes or no nominal appointment time at all. The average respondent saw between 10 and 20 clients on average. They were generally positive in response to the following statements:

• Setting nominal screening times for each appointment is necessary to meet screening targets. (8 agree; 6 neither agree nor disagree; 1 not applicable)
• The client’s needs come first in my department. (8 strongly agree; 4 agree; 3 neither agree nor disagree)
• My department has enough staff to provide the service we are expected to provide. (10 agree; 1 neither agree nor disagree; 4 disagree)
• Patients fully understand the reason for their attendance at screening appointments. (1 strongly agree; 11 agree; 2 neither agree nor disagree; 1 strongly disagree)
• I can normally satisfactorily complete the examination within the allocated time. (6 strongly agree; 9 agree)
• If necessary, I can extend the length of the appointment. (4 strongly agree; 8 agree; 2 neither agree nor disagree; 1 disagree)
• Pressure to complete appointments within a set time negatively affects my morale. (3 neither agree nor disagree; 7 disagree; 2 strongly disagree; 2 not applicable; 1 blank)
• Pressure to complete appointments within a set time negatively affects my health. (3 neither disagree nor agree; 9 disagree; 1 strongly disagree; 1 not applicable; 1 blank)

The following comment is representative of comments made by five of the non-NHS respondents:

“It is a luxury to spend 10 mins with a client but it leads to a much more relaxed service that previous clients of the NHS comment on frequently.”

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