GIRFT is pleased to mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2025 with the launch of a new handbook supporting NHS teams to offer more breast reconstruction surgery to patients who choose it, helping to reduce long waiting lists.
In a collaboration with the research and support charity Breast Cancer Now (BCN), the handbook identifies good practice and offers practical advice on how it can be rolled out to better ensure equitable access to breast reconstruction services across England.
If you have an NHS email address, please also take the time to join GIRFT’s Future NHS workspace (click here and request to join). As a member you will have access to the full range of resources referred to in the handbook.
Tracey Irvine, GIRFT’s clinical lead for breast surgery, said:
“In our visits to providers and cancer alliances we have seen some fantastic work being carried out to make sure patients who need and choose breast reconstruction can have that surgery in a timely manner, but we also know there is a lot of variation and some significant challenges. As we mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month this October, it is imperative that we acknowledge the best practice adopted by many trusts, harness the solutions that already exist, and implement them more widely across England. This guide provides best practice across a number of important metrics to help colleagues on their journey to go further and faster towards improving access to breast reconstruction services, which we are confident will make an incredibly positive impact for our patients and our workforce on a national scale.”
The handbook was developed in collaboration with colleagues across different organisations and by working with a BCN task and finish group.
It highlights principles for several key areas of focus for breast reconstruction – shared decision-making, access to surgery, service organisation, surgical pathways, training and theatres – and provides checklists against which teams can assess their current practice.
The handbook builds on the success of GIRFT’s Further Faster (FF) programme in outpatient elective care, applying the same methodology to breast reconstruction services, with a focus on reducing variation in care for patients in England and delivering equitable access to reduce long waiting lists.
Claire Rowney, chief executive of Breast Cancer Now, said:
“For those who choose it, breast reconstruction is an important part of an individual’s recovery, whether that be from breast cancer or risk-reducing surgery. Our Delivering Real Choice report, published in 2022, highlighted the need for women to be able to access the right type of reconstruction for them, at the right time for them. Breast reconstruction services are still dealing with issues such as workforce shortages, lack of theatre space, and fewer trusts offering reconstruction after the pandemic, and this is in turn impacting those women wishing to have breast reconstruction surgery. We are pleased to work with GIRFT to produce this handbook, which we hope will further help improve breast reconstruction services.”
