Breast screening services in an Aberdeenshire village have been paused due to staff absences and vehicle breakdown.
The North East Scotland Mobile Breast Screening Service has been operating from within the car park at Alford Medical Practice, offering mammograms to women between the ages of 50 and 70-years-old.
However, NHS Grampian has confirmed today that the unit will temporarily leave the site on Friday for a period of 13 days.
Health bosses say splitting the programme into two blocks is due “previous staff absences and vehicle breakdown” which has knocked the schedule back.
The unit is due to be in Shetland shortly, and the timeslot cannot be rearranged.
An NHS Grampian spokeswoman said: “We are sorry we cannot offer breast screening in Alford in one continuous block. Unfortunately previous staff absence and a vehicle breakdown have disrupted the screening schedule.
“In addition, the team are also committed to visiting Shetland to offer screening there and this cannot be rearranged. We would strongly encourage everyone invited to attend the breast screening mobile unit during its visits to Alford to attend.”
The unit is expected to return to the Gordon road car park from June 23 and will remain in place until all eligible ladies have been screened.
Women aged 50-70 years of age who are registered with a GP at the Alford Medical Practice and Strathdon Medical Centre will receive an invitation to attend a breast screening.
Sarah Philip, manager for the breast screening service, said: “The aim of the programme is to detect breast changes at an early stage when treatment has the best chance of being successful.
“We hope that women invited for the first time will take advantage of their invitation for mammography and for women who have been screened previously, it is important to attend to ensure that there have been no changes over the past three years.”
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