Hospital chiefs at County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust have agreed to review up to 4,500 more breast cancer cases. This expansion follows the discovery of failings, including delayed diagnoses and unnecessary surgeries, which have harmed hundreds of patients.
The trust's board offered "sincere" apologies for the harm caused, with board chair Alison Marshall stating they would be "open, honest and transparent" about the failings. Concerns were first raised in 2015 after a "service reconfiguration" and a loss of breast surgical trainee posts.
A lookback review, which began in April 2025, initially examined cases between January 2023 and February 2025. So far, 538 cases have been reviewed, with 321 patients found to have experienced some form of harm, including one death.