Kemi Badenoch has mentioned she wouldn’t desire a male radiographer performing a mammogram to display screen for breast most cancers.
The Conservative chief mentioned she would “definitely want a woman” to carry out a breast screening examination – after consultants mentioned male well being staff needs to be allowed to carry out them to sort out workforce shortages.
Mammograms are the one well being examination carried out solely by feminine employees.
The NHS’s breast screening programme invitations girls aged 50 to 71 for examinations which search for cancers too small to see or really feel.
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Mammograms can presently solely be carried out by girls radiographers. Pic: iStock
Amid a “critical” employees scarcity, the Society of Radiographers (SoR) mentioned male well being staff may excel within the subject however are being denied the prospect due to their gender.
Ms Badenoch, 45, informed Occasions Radio: “I’ve had a mammogram, it is a very, very intrusive process.
“It entails the clinician holding each of your breasts for an extended time frame, feeling them, manipulating them, placing them within the machine.
“I would not want a man doing that – (I) definitely would want a woman.”
She added: “I think the solution is to get more radiographers, not to ask women, yet again, to sacrifice their privacy and dignity to deal with a supply issue. I don’t think that’s right.”
On the SoR annual convention, they are going to vote on whether or not they need to enable male mammographers, stating the abilities wanted “are not inherently gendered attributes, specific or biased to one gender”.
The movement provides males “might excel in this” and “offer a different perspective or approach to patient care”.
Additionally they mentioned transgender males needs to be included within the NHS breast screening programme.
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The SoR mentioned the emptiness charge amongst screening mammographers is 17.5% and is sort of 20% amongst symptomatic mammographers, who assess girls with lumps of their breasts or household historical past of breast most cancers.
“Allowing men to work in mammography would help to reduce shortages – and therefore to reduce waiting lists,” mentioned Charlotte Beardmore, govt director {of professional} coverage on the SoR.
“That, in turn, would ensure that every patient is given the treatment they need, when they need it.”
A Division of Well being and Social Care (DHSC) spokesperson mentioned: “This government inherited a broken NHS where too many cancer patients are waiting too long for diagnosis and treatment, including for breast cancer.
“By way of our Plan for Change, we’re driving down ready instances, getting sufferers seen and handled quicker.
“We will also tackle workforce shortages head on, and ensure the NHS has the staff it needs to be there for all of us when we need it.”
