Focused On: NHS Breast Screening - A Blueprint for Success

The problems associated with the forward planning of equipment and staff for the Breast Screening Service are substantial. If it were simply a matter of taking a demand from a known population and providing the service for this demand, then it would be quite straightforwards.

However, there are some very significant additional considerations.

Geographically, all women must be screened at a convenient, local facility
There is a history of when women were last screened. This must be carried forward honouring the commitment that there should be a maximum of three years between screenings.
There is the issue of "Age Extension" which relates to the increase in the age band of eligible women from 50-70 years old to 47-73 years old.
The skills needed for the delivery of the service are scarce and have a long training cycle. The staffing problems are compounded by the need to move from "Film" to "Digital" screening.

In mathematical terms this is a three dimensional clustering (north, south, time) where there are capacity limits on the Facilities and the time dimension is constrained by both the history and the maximum and minimum times between screenings.

The challenges above have addressed using a mixture of Set Covering, Simulation and bespoke Clustering and Time Scheduling algorithms. The client was very satisfied with the results of this work, as can be seen from their Reference . A summary of this project can be seen at Leeds and Wakefield. Project Summary