By 1991, the NHSBSP was inviting over one million women a year for screening. In the autumn of that year, a controversy erupted when the value of breast self examination was questioned by the then Chief Medi- cal Officer. Over the next three weeks, the policy of breast awareness, which had been under development, was hastily polished and delivered. The Department of Health then released the first figures from the breast screening programme showing that it was finding a high rate of cancers and appeared to be on target. The first major incident involving breast cancer screening occurred in 1994. In a.
