Rebuilding my body: breast reconstruction in England

Rebuilding my body: breast reconstruction in England This report compiles evidence from Freedom of Information (FOI) requests conducted by the Breast Cancer Now in 2017. It shows that 47 out of 208 clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in England (22.6 per cent) have established policies to restrict reconstruction services for non-clinical reasons. With a further nine CCGs (4.3 per cent) having draft policies or informal restrictions in place. The emerging policies – which have been described by the charity as 'totally unacceptable' and 'not in the best interest of patients' – include limiting the number of surgeries women are allowed, enforcing a time-frame on their completion and denying ‘balancing surgery’ to the unaffected breast to achieve symmetry with the reconstruction, resulting in widespread variation in care across England. King's Fund