Breast Cancer: Surgery

(asked on 19th October 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how long on average women wait between having a mastectomy and breast reconstruction; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
Edward Argar Portrait
Edward Argar
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This question was answered on 3rd November 2020

The total number of finished consultant episodes (FCE) for reconstructive surgery in 2019-20 was 8,018. Of these, 6,061 had a mastectomy within the previous five years. Of these 4,557 reconstructive surgeries were on the same day as a mastectomy, with a mean waiting time of 194 days and a median waiting time of zero days.

Their were a total of 1,505 reconstructive surgeries which did not take place during the same FCE, with a mean waiting time between mastectomy and reconstructive surgery of 836 days and a median waiting time of 762 days.

A FCE is a continuous period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. These figures do not represent the number of different patients, as a person may have more than one episode of care within the same stay on hospital or in different stays in the same year.

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